


Beastmaster: Season Four

by kayura_sanada



Category: Beastmaster (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Canon Continuation, Episode References Abound, Episode: s01e08 The Last Unicorns, Episode: s02e04 Orpheo, Episode: s02e22 Clash of the Titans, Episode: s03e15 Sisters, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post-Canon, Protectiveness, Side Romance: Sharak/Sorceress, Slow Burn, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2019-08-20 04:45:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 54,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16549154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayura_sanada/pseuds/kayura_sanada
Summary: After only four months of reign, a new enemy strikes at Dar's home. Their first target? Balcifer, at the moment being guarded in the Vella's home by none other than Tao.





	1. Episode 01: Awun, God of Destruction

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to the end of the series. Specific mention of S3 E15, “Sisters,” and S2, E4, “Orpheo.”
> 
> Author's Note: I can't believe it's been almost twenty years since Beastmaster first aired. I also can't believe I'm posting this after years of pretending I wasn't writing it. If only one person reads this and enjoys, I'll be eternally grateful.

“ _When Balcifer falls, the final challenge will be at hand.”_

 

* * *

* * *

 

Tao looked up from his sewing, automatically scanning the trees for a certain eagle before he caught himself and chuckled. It had been four months since Dar had entered the castle in the mist, and yet Tao still sometimes caught himself searching for his friend and his allies. It was still a strange feeling, sitting and not having Dar nearby, practicing his fighting skills. Though less strange now than it had been when he had stayed in Eirokan, constantly waiting for the moment when Dar would finally return.

“Hello, Tao.”

Tao turned and smiled at the blondes. “Hello.” The Vella passed him, entering the main building. Tao watched them go, still unwilling to leave the cave of knowledge hidden behind the prefecture. Deep within rested the Crystal Ark, and inside, roiling around fruitlessly, was the darkness that made up Balcifer. Tao found himself sleeping just outside the cave, politely declining every attempt of the Vella to bring him in. He could pretend it was simply because he didn't feel safe leaving it out of his sight. Not after he'd promised Dar to keep it safe and protected.

In reality, there was something about its presence that left him unnerved, even now; he could almost sense the malevolence inside, keeping him from his rest.

The tree he leaned against shook slightly, and Tao looked up to see a hawk above him, mouse squeaking in its talons. He looked back down as the hawk started eating and picked himself up from the ground. The last thing he wanted was mouse innards plopping onto his head.

He sat against the cave wall and continued his sewing, patching up a bag that had ripped from a rock the Vella Queen had asked him to get, back when Arina had taken his place as guardian and he had gone to check on Eirokan.

With a cry, the hawk threw the mouse's body to the ground and took off. Several smaller birds followed after.

Tao dropped his stitching and stood.

A soft wind swept around the cave walls and through the trees, spitting scents of pine and lavender. Tao searched around, but he couldn't see anything. Animals didn't lie, however. Something was out there. And it wasn't Arina – she didn't make a habit of terrifying the local wildlife.

He turned to the cave entrance. Was it Balcifer?

He looked around again, but he still couldn't see anything and his main priority was the Crystal Ark.

Then he hesitated. Would the enemy be watching him? _Was_ there an enemy? He squinted, searching the leaves and bushes and grass for something that didn't belong. There were far too many places to hide further from the caves, and if Balcifer was loose...

Tao ran a hand through his hair and ran into the cave, grabbing his bags on the way. A couple herbs fell from his unmended sack. He scrambled to grab the sack's bottom and tripped. Tao had to drop the sack altogether in order to grab the wall. It was cool and damp to the touch. Tao left his sack and stumbled against the wall to the cave's bowels.

The Vella's personal stash was still lined up along the walls and altar. The Crystal Ark sat in the middle of the altar, right next to the now useless map of Dar's family and several of Eldar's scrolls. Inside the Ark was a roiling mass of black, one that thundered and crackled as Tao approached it. He knew better than to touch it; though it didn't harm Dar, and though Arina never complained of anything, the Ark burned and tore at his hands whenever he made contact with it.

Balcifer was still safely trapped inside.

Tao ran another quick hand through his hair, then threw the rest of his bags to the ground and tugged off his water flask. He looked to the cave entrance, but there was nothing. Nothing but an uncomfortable silence. He scrambled through one of his sacks until his hand gripped the familiar hilt of his dagger. Well, one of Arina's old daggers.

He unsheathed it and faced the entrance. Still there was no sound but the gentle sway of the wind through the rocks. Should he try to contact the Vella? But they were not fighters any more than he, even with Dar's knowledge of fighting flowing through their consciousnesses. Should he try to get them, anyway? He bit his lip. If only Arina was back from her trip to Orpheo's grave. Then again, with the business awaiting him in Eirokan, that would mean _she_ would be here alone. It would be safer for her than him, but she would still be in danger.

He shifted from foot to foot and took the chance to put his sheathe on the altar next to the scrolls.

“You are Balcifer's guard?”

Tao whirled to the man blocking the entrance. He shoved his dagger before him and his other hand into what he hoped was a proper defense posture. He adjusted his stance when he saw the black markings crawling up the man's neck to his cheeks, ones that resembled dark flames. “Who are you?”

The man's hair fell across his shoulders as he stepped forward. He seemed to eat up the small space. Tao crouched.

“I am simply a delivery boy.” And the man held out his gloved hand, palm up.

Tao's eyes flicked down, but he remained ready in case the man attacked. He didn't. “There's nothing there.”

“Of course not. I came for Balcifer.”

“You're not getting him.” Tao placed himself between the man and the Ark.

It was the second time the man had done it – called Balcifer by name, without the 'Lord' attached. Was this black-haired man an agent of Balcifer or not?

It didn't matter. Whoever he was, Tao wasn't letting him pass.

The man sighed and retracted his hand. “I didn't figure you would. You're a strange guard, though. I was expecting a sorcerer, or at least a warrior.”

At the moment, Tao was wishing he was one of those. The man pushed aside his long black coat and searched through a hole in his pants for something. The man was sighing again.

Should he attack now, while the intruder was distracted? But the man's legs, though seemingly relaxed, were spread. No doubt he was as prepared as Tao for a sudden attack. Tao wet his lips. “What are you doing here? Who sent you?”

“My, my. Quite the talker.” The intruder stopped searching and turned his gaze back to Tao. The scholar jerked back in surprise; the man's eyes were blood red. “Who defeated Balcifer?”

That made Tao jerk back again. It seemed the whole world knew of Dar's triumph over Balcifer and his following succession to Eldar's throne. And yet this man did not? More, why would he wish to know unless he was planning something against Dar? As if Tao would let such a thing happen. “Why do you want to know?”

“Oh? Someone close to you, then.” The man pulled his hand free from his pocket and twisted his fingers until something was displayed between his first finger and his thumb. “Do you know what this is?”

Tao barely glanced at it, still prepared for the inevitable strike. Maybe Arina was on her way back. Maybe, for once, Tao could have some luck that wasn't bad. “It's an orange topaz.”

“That's right.” The man quirked a quick grin, seemingly impressed. He folded the orange gemstone back into his palm. “Did you know that people place supernatural abilities on stones like this?”

“Yes,” Tao answered, and his mouth kept right on moving without his permission. “The topaz is said to give the wearer self-confidence and negate bad dreams.”

This time the man chuckled. “Yes. Absurd, isn't it? It's also supposed to protect against evil's magics, and even death itself. Did you know that?”

Tao's eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

“Yes, I suppose you would. An Eiron.” The man nodded to Tao's hand and the ring thereon. “You are a scholar. You most certainly could not have been the one to defeat Balcifer.”

“I may be a scholar, but I've learned how to fight.” Tao didn't want to put his skills to the test, however. Not alone against a man who was searching for Balcifer. He really wished Arina was with him.

The man seemed rather unimpressed with his declaration.

“Well, that may be true enough, but I have no intention of wasting time.” The man curled his fingers over his palm. Over the topaz stone. Then he pointed his fist at Tao.

Magic.

Tao realized it just as the fist stilled in front of him and a bright orange light wrapped from the man's fingers to him. He backed up and raised his dagger, but the light split around the blade and swirled around him.

Suddenly he couldn't move.

The man stepped forward and pocketed his topaz, simply patting Tao on the shoulder as he passed. Tao hissed. A shock of pain spread along his shoulder, like a burning beneath his clothes. Instinctively he tried to flinch, but even that failed. When the enemy walked behind him, he couldn't turn his head. He was still breathing, though. That was good. Very good.

From behind him, Tao could hear the scraping sound of the Ark against the stone of the altar. With everything he had, he pushed against whatever barrier held him still. The only things that moved were his eyelashes – he blinked. Sweat beaded lightly against his upper lip.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” the man said, and walked past Tao straight out of the cave.

Tao strained where he stood, pushed and tugged at his muscles with everything he had, but his body remained frozen.

The man walked away.

 

* * *

 

Arina pushed a lock of hair from her face and stepped around a tree. Her mind was wandering once more, back to her old lover and the life they'd created together. She'd already taken a misstep, one that had cost her a short sun's travel. She'd been expected a day ago, but she simply hadn't been able to make herself hurry as she had before.

With Dar, things had been different. Somehow his adventures had kept her head above water. Or perhaps it had simply been him? Or maybe the atmosphere? Certainly things weren't as fun as they'd been before.

The Vella's home finally came into view. She could even see several of the blonds walking around. Something interesting must have happened. The thought had her racing down the incline. Only one thing in the Vella's Cave of Wonders, as Tao had once dubbed it, was important enough to raise such a frenzy – and only one thing could get past the Vella.

Forgoing stealth, Arina raced through the last of the trees and grabbed the nearest blond, one wringing her hands and pacing. “What happened? Where's Balcifer? And Tao?”

Both names made the woman flinch. She pointed toward the Vella Queen's quarters. “Mother is treating Tao now, but–”

“Treating him?!” Arina let go of the blond and ran inside. The place was still vaguely creepy, even after she'd seen it a number of times – the mummified remains, now dusted and treated with more honor, the harsh orange-brown walls of the cave the Vella called their home, a cave that somehow reminded Arina of a bee hive or a termite mound.

She stopped almost as soon as she entered. The Queen was circling Tao, but he looked fine. Nervous, anxious, down in a crouch even now, with only the Queen in the room. And his knife was in his hand. But nothing horrific. Nothing like she'd imagined.

The Queen looked up at her entrance and smiled thinly. “Ah, Miss Arina. If you would please?” She gestured to Tao.

The atmosphere still spoke of calamity. It made Arina hesitate, but she finally stepped inside. “What happened?”

The Queen touched Tao's cheek, then his arm. “I cannot be certain, but it seems our Tao has been paralyzed.”

That made Arina move. Suddenly Tao's tension was understandable; suddenly the knife is his hand seemed far more dangerous. “Paralyzed? Is he under someone's control?” She stood in front of Tao and waved her hand in front of his face. He rolled his eyes. “Hm. Not completely paralyzed, I see.”

“No, but he seems unable to speak or move. And the Ark is gone.”

Arina turned to the Queen. “Gone?”

“Yes.” The woman nodded. “There are no signs of shards – it has not been broken, at least not here. And certainly the sky has not darkened.” The woman touched Tao's neck. “I cannot find any wound or enchanted item on him, nor have I found a presence of an herb or poultice. I do not know what has caused this.”

“ _You_ don't know?” Arina ran a hand over her dagger. And she'd thought her memories were what was making this a bad day. “We need to–”

“Mother! Mother!” Three blonds scuttled into the room, each pointing outside.

The Queen closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes, I see.” She turned to Arina. “You should answer the Beastmaster's call.” She raised her head in the direction of the entrance. “It seems he has sent his friend Sharak. Most likely he heard the disturbance from the animals. The birds have yet to return to the trees.”

Arina sent Tao a small smile. “We'll find out what happened, all right? And we'll get you free.”

Tao narrowed his eyes and blinked.

“Tao, you know I have no idea what that means.”

Tao rolled his eyes again.

She only shook her head and left, following the honeycomb pattern of the wall to the exit, passing through the treasure trove. The Queen was right; everything was still perfectly in place from the time Tao cleaned the room. There was nothing on the floor, nothing broken, nothing even crooked. There was simply a hole in the middle of the altar where the Ark should have been. Past the room, toward the exit, a sack and a couple small herbs dotted the ground. Tao must have dropped them. A needle and thread sat in the grass beside the exit.

The sun was beginning to set when she came out of the caves. It was easy to find Sharak; he was perched on a tree directly in front of the cave, his golden brown eyes watching her as she exited. She looked right into his eyes. “Dar, we've got a problem.”

 

* * *

 

“Sendar, can you go with this man to the Rakshi tribe?” Dar turned to his brother, standing behind and to his right. His brother's hands were clasped behind him, his shoulders and back ramrod straight. Certainly his stance was far more austere and king-like than Dar's own, as he still slouched as if prepared to stand in an instant. Still, the crown beside the throne was his, and his butt was the only one allowed on that particular seat.

He leaned forward, clasping the elderly man's hands. “My brother will take some of our troops and will help you with the bandits. He's a good strategist. You will sleep safely now.”

“Thank you.” The man bowed his head so deeply his hat slid dangerously, almost falling off. When he looked up, his blind eyes were watering. “Thank you.”

Sendar came up then, gently taking the man's hands and leading him away. One quick look at Dar said his brother wasn't thrilled with him ignoring proximity protocol… again.

Lycia waved at him from the side entrance that led to their chambers in the castle. He turned to her to see a batch of sweets in her hands again. He quirked her a half-smile and shook his head. If he kept eating his sister's sweets, he would grow fat, no matter how often he kept himself busy. His sister stuck her tongue out at him and signaled for him to get his brothers.

Darshun, his once-horse brother, was the first to grab Lycia's offer and happily took Dar's share, as well. He made moaning noises as their last brother, Randar, silently took his own. He murmured to Lycia, and she rushed out of the room. She was almost certainly running to grab Sendar before he left.

Darshun was already finished chowing down and was licking off the last vestiges of the snack. Randar, on the other hand, was taking his time, as always, giving Dar the chance to get a quick break before meeting the next villager.

He looked around the room again, still disturbed by the surroundings. There were no plants, no animals. Only bright golden walls with red tapestries and carpets. The silence was disturbing, like the time he'd lost his powers. But far off, in the distance, he could hear the voices of the animals, chittering about food and boasting about kills. He listened to them for a time and felt his muscles slowly relax.

“Oi, Dar, we've got another one.”

Dar sighed and sat forward. What now? Another group of bandits? A food shortage? 'Evil' animals?

It was like traveling with Tao all over again, only there were a million problems at once and his friend wasn't there to regale him with stories and annoying inventions that he could argue the usefulness of.

Hm. He supposed it was like the old adventures, only much less fun.

Randar finished his food and cleared his throat before opening the giant gilded doors. A couple came in, brandishing a small child in their arms.

An illness? Dar leaned forward in his seat, something Sendar would reproach him for if he'd been there. “Can I help you?”

The woman looked up and lifted her chin. She stepped toward him, holding her baby's head under her chin. “Dar.” She cleared her throat. “King Dar. I'm certain you don't remember me. I was a woman from the village you saved from Iara, the Snake Demoness. You saved the men. Do you remember?”

Dar nodded. More specifically, he remembered the women of the island and Iara's poisonous love game. And worse, he remembered searching for Tao and not finding him, not knowing where he was and having all those women lie to him. He remembered the simmering boil of panic that had rested in his chest like a festering wound. “I remember. Is she causing you trouble again?” It wouldn't be surprising that, now that the danger was long gone, Iara had gone back to terrorizing the nearby townsfolk.

“No.” The woman shifted the little boy and grabbed the blanket around the child before it slipped. “No, she's done nothing to our village.”

What was that noise? Dar lifted his head to the side. Something was happening.

“But I saw her a few days ago. She was agitated, I think. Pacing. She was saying something, but I couldn't understand her. I didn't want to get too close.”

Dar nodded, saying he heard her, but his attention was being pulled. Some animals were in distress. “It was a good idea to stay away. She's easily angered by humans.” Dar stood. Deer and birds were calling to him. Others were deadly silent, trying to keep from making any possible noise. Something dangerous was coming through, something unnatural. “I'll make sure to speak to her as soon as I can. Does she seem ready to attack?”

“No. She looked scared. I wanted to tell you.” The woman looked back at her husband, a clear sign that he wasn't too pleased with her decision. Dar looked at him, but the man didn't return the gesture. Instead he was looking at his wife, watching her as though she might disappear. Ah. He feared Iara's wrath.

“Anything that scares Iara is something to be concerned about.”

“That's what I thought.” The toddler started mumbling. The mother moved him to bounce on her hip. “Will you be all right speaking with her again?”

“I'll be fine.” As long as he didn't fall for her games, he wouldn't have a problem.

A hawk screamed for him then, and his head turned to the sound. Danger. There was danger, and the friend he'd asked the hawk to check up on was the danger's target.

Tao.

He turned to the woman. “I'm very sorry, but I have to go. Something's happening.”

“Already?” The woman hugged her baby to her chest. Her husband came up to her then and kept his eyes on Dar.

“Give them a room here, please, until we find out what's happened,” he said, speaking to both of his brothers, and to no one in particular. He left them, knowing Randar and Darshun would take care of it.

Away from the throne room, Dar crossed the halls and ran to the nearest window. It would do nothing for him, but his family would recognize the stance and would wait to speak with him.

_What's happening?_

The return calls were faint but instant, each trying to talk above the other. Dar closed his eyes, bowed his head, and concentrated. He saw scattered images, all of them wrapped in fear. Finally he called for the hawk.

Danger. The hawk's answer was more calm, but even he seemed afraid. He'd taken shelter in the neighbor hawk's territory, hiding on its outskirts. When Dar asked for information, all he got was the same response as before. Unnatural danger heading for the Vella home. Heading for Balcifer. Heading for Tao.

“Sharak!” he shouted, calling for the immortal eagle with his mind at the same time. Sharak quickly returned his call. Apparently his friend had heard the ruckus and was already going to investigate. Dar stood, fidgeting from foot to foot, wanting to move, to act. His hands gripped the window. Blindly he scanned the mist surrounding the castle, protecting it from the world. Over time, that mist had slowly begun to thin, allowing more sunshine than the first few weeks. Was it just him, or was the mist thickening again?

Sharak called for him in warning before a vision of the Vella's home took over Dar's sight. It was obvious something was wrong; the Vella were running everywhere, grabbing things. He saw one pick up a pouch and carefully carry it into the Vella Queen's home. It was one of Tao's. Sharak got nearer and screeched again. The eagle's eyes focused on a small glint near the entrance to the treasure cave. It looked like a needle. If Tao had been fixing something, he'd left so fast he'd dropped the needle. And, apparently, his pack.

And if Tao had run, something had gotten close to him.

What was there? Who? Dar wanted to grab his father's sword and run, but it was more important to see what was happening. What had already happened.

This time when Sharak called out, one of the Vella turned to him. He flapped forward and landed in a nearby tree. The woman beamed a smile at the eagle and ran inside.

It took only another few moments, and then Arina came out of the treasure cave. She looked straight over to Sharak. Her lips were thin, her eyes narrowed. Something in Dar's chest tightened.

“Dar,” she said, coming to a halt in front of Sharak, “we've got a problem.”

That something grabbed at his heart and raced up his throat.

“What happened?” he asked, even though he knew full well she couldn't hear. He leaned forward until he was partly outside. The mist made the air wet against his face.

Arina turned to look behind her, but she wasn't looking to the treasure trove where Balcifer was being kept. Her eyes went instead to the Queen's chambers. “Dar, the crystal Ark has been stolen.” Arina turned her dark eyes to Sharak, granting Dar the sight of a tense gaze. “Balcifer's gone, and Tao's been paralyzed somehow. He isn't moving. The only thing he can do is blink.”

Dar stumbled away from the window then, his hands falling to his sides. He rubbed a hand over his face, dispelling the vision. “Sharak, stay with them.” He ran to his throne.

His brother was leading the family out just as he entered. The door closed just as he took his first step inside the throne room. Randar, his calmer brother, came up to him as he grabbed his father's sword. “Dar?”

“Something's come up, Randar.” His backstrap was in his room. He had to go get it. He called for Ruh. He was caring for a second litter, but at Dar's call, Ruh promised to head over to Tao. “The Crystal Ark's been taken.”

Randar's reaction was only a short hiss of a breath. “I see. I'll tell the others. Do you need us to come with you?”

“No. Stay here and protect Mom and Lycia.” Dar looked at his brother. Randar was the darkest-haired of the four of them, and the calmest. “And make sure Darshun stays, too.”

“Of course. I'll let Sendar know, too, if he's back before you.” Randar turned to the door Darshun had left through. “Go ahead, before Darshun returns.”

Dar smiled. “Thanks.”

The palace had halls and stairways and paths that had initially confounded Dar, with tapestries and statues and ornate sculptures along the routes. But Dar had memorized landmarks and turns, and now he crossed through the less trodden ones. He made it to the exit without meeting with any of his family. The castle gates were wide open, letting drifts of mist waft within.

Four months. In four months, he'd never left this building. The smell of water and sunlight touched his nose. Even if it was because of something as dangerous as this, the chance to return to the forests made his heart light.

He stepped out without hesitation. The mists seemed to carry him. Faith was necessary to get here – faith in the throne and the person sitting in it. It was a foolproof security device. Anyone without faith couldn't pass through.

It took a short bit of time, but Dar was across the mist and on solid grass. The sun was high in the sky, but the mist kept him easily cool. He looked around, scanning the trees and listening to the chatter of the animals.

He turned behind him at the sound of two angry voices and grinned. Kodo and Podo were chasing him, dragging their little pouch along with them. They both berated him as they ran.

“Sorry, you two.” He obligingly picked up the pouch as they came to a stop in front of him, and the two climbed up his pants and jumped inside.

It took them less than a second to comment on his outfit.

“Yes, I know. It's worse than Tao's.” He wore the usual garments expected of him in the castle, heavy, cumbersome things garbed in threads and patchwork. He looked foolish.

Kodo poked her head out and told him to look inside the pouch.

His old clothes lay inside.

He thanked her and reached for the cloth, but he saw someone heading toward him from the mist and turned, letting the clothes wait. “Mom.”

She made the mist swirl like the Sorceress, her blond hair regally perched upon her head and her eyes straight ahead, focused on him. A worried frown marred her forehead. “Dar.” She reached out her hands and waited for him to clasp them. “You're going off to fight.”

“Mother, the Crystal Ark has been taken and Tao is in danger.”

She nodded. “I would like to think you wouldn't leave without at least seeing me?”

Her eyes were searching his for something. He smiled for her. “You and Lycia worry over all of us, and this could be dangerous. If I said good-bye, you might think I wouldn't come back. Besides, you know Lycia would join me. She bakes cookies at least three times a day now, just to have something to do.”

She seemed to see the truth in his eyes and nodded. Old heirlooms from his father glittered in her hair and ears and on her neck. She wore them every day. “That's true enough. And I'll trust you to be all right.”

“I'll come back, Mother.” He kissed her cheek. Kodo yelled at him to hurry up. “I have to go.”

“Take care, my son.”

He let go of her hands. “Return to the castle. You'll be safe there.” He waited until she took a step back into the mist, then turned and made his exit.

When he was far enough away, he stepped into the trees and switched his outfits, leaving the ridiculous garments behind to be eaten by nature.

 

* * *

 

Arina returned to Tao's side, though she knew she could do nothing to help. “Sharak's staying, and Dar knows about what happened. Or at least what we know of it.” She looked into Tao's eyes. They were scrunched as if he was concentrating on something.

“Good. That's it, Tao.” Arina turned to the Queen. “Keep it up.” The Queen was looking down at Tao's right hand. It seemed almost to be wiggling a bit, like a worm. Soon his entire hand was moving, then his other. His toes started wiggling, too, and then Arina was on catching duty as Tao started leaning dangerously back. As Arina held him, his arms started moving, then his legs. Like a shiver, his back arced slightly, and with a gasp he went limp, like a broken doll in her arms.

Then he was flailing and pushing and shoving his way onto his hand and knees. His limbs seemed unwilling to support him, but he managed to get his feet underneath him and with a grunt, he stood up. And swayed.

“Tao. Should you be moving yet?” Arina stood behind him, ready to catch as necessary.

“No, probably not.” Tao grabbed his head and moaned. He bent down into the pain, gasping for breath.

Just as Arina bent down to help him, he lurched back up again and staggered to the wall. He leaned against it heavily; his legs were shaking. Arina followed after him with an indulgent sigh.

It took almost as long as regaining movement had, but finally Tao reached the exit and stumbled through it. Sharak shouted out, most likely getting Dar's attention. Tao looked up and smiled. And though he was obviously in pain and injured and most likely furious and mortified by the loss of the Ark, everything about him relaxed.

“Dar,” he breathed.

Then he crossed the threshold and looked into Sharak's eyes. “Dar.” This time his voice was much stronger. “It was one guy, some…” Tao swayed on his feet and took a deep breath. His balance, always phenomenally bad, now almost sent him to the ground. Arina grabbed his arm. She kept her eyes on him as he struggled; it was clear he wasn't better yet, with all of his limbs shivering and his breaths coming in gulps. “It's…” But he was no longer able to keep his voice raised and gave up, turning to speak his words to Arina. “He's strong. He used some sort of magic – a topaz. He bound me with a topaz. A stone.”

If it weren't for the blatant incredulity in Tao's voice, Arina wouldn't have believed him.

“The Vella didn't feel him here, and I can only imagine it's because of that strange magic. He didn't know about Dar himself, but he seems to want to find Dar – the one who defeated Balcifer. Tell him that, Arina. Warn him.”

She led him slowly back to the Queen's cave's entrance, placing him against the outer wall of the cave and helping him sit against it. “I will.”

Tao nodded and looked back to Sharak. The eagle was watching him steadily, catching his every movement. Tao leaned his head against the rock. “Maybe I shouldn't have come out.”

Meaning Dar would be less likely to listen to reason, seeing Tao so injured.

“I'll talk to him. And Sharak probably will, too.”

Arina stood and walked to Sharak. “Dar, Tao says it was magic that paralyzed him, that the man did something to him with something called a topaz. He says it's a stone. He also says the man didn't know you, but wanted to find you, though he doesn't know why.” She looked back at Tao and frowned. His eyes were closed. At least his breathing was steady. Was he asleep? “Dar, I can't say he looks good, but I think he's going to be all right. It looks temporary.”

Tao was definitely asleep already.

She looked back at Sharak, but there was no way to see what Dar was thinking. Whatever he would decide, she knew his first action would be to get to Tao's side.

 

* * *

 

It was the middle of the night when Dar charged through the trees and brush and came to a stop before the Vella's home. Grasshoppers sang to the moon; an owl hooted, telling him it was going off to hunt, that it had guarded his friends while Sharak, unable to see as well in the night, had taken the chance to rest. Ruh was resting to the side and raised his head at Dar's approach. His welcome was a grunt and a complaint about the wait. “Thank you, old friend,” Dar said with a small smile. The tiger had arrived just in time to be put on guard duty.

Dar looked around, but there was no one outside. He only took a few short steps into the Queen's home before Arina and two Vella met with him. Their defensive stances dropped as soon as they recognized him. “He's in here,” Arina told him, immediately taking point, and led him to the Queen's private chambers. Tao rested on the Queen's bed, one arm draped over his stomach and the other lying palm down beside him. His head hung to the left, granting Dar a view of his sleeping face.

“Is he all right?” he asked, the question that had plagued him for hours. Tao's face looked much calmer than it had when he'd staggered out to speak to Sharak; the lines of tension around his eyes or his mouth had faded in sleep. He seemed to be resting naturally.

“He seems to be,” Arina said, “but we can't be sure. We've never seen this type of magic before.”

Dar rubbed his face and looked around. “The Sorceress. She should know.”

“Dar, you and I both know that woman has locked herself up in her stupid little potions room. She's useless until she finds out how to get her dear beloved back.” Arina nodded her head to the outside, where Sharak stayed.

“I have to find out what happened to him.” Dar watched Tao as he slept. The picture of Tao stumbling out into the sun, his gaze unfocused, trying to tell him something and unable to find the strength… He turned and moved to the treasure room. Arina quickly followed behind him.

It was strange to step inside and see the altar half empty. Scrolls and medallions covered the edges of the table, but the middle was bare. That was where Tao had said the Ark resided, somewhere where it would be guarded for all time. That plan had obviously failed.

“Tao said the man – whoever he is – is waiting for you. It would be dangerous, Dar.” Arina came up beside him and scanned the walls – the scrolls, the strange assortment of vases and statuettes. “There's probably information somewhere in here.”

“Tao's the only one who could find it. If it was something obvious, the Vella Queen would have already said.” Dar continued outside, pausing to pick up Tao's dropped herbs. He handed them to Arina. “I have to go.”

She nodded. “If Tao's right, then the trail I found is his attacker's.” She took the lead as they exited and pointed to the right. Ruh looked up, huffed, and stood. “You'll pick it up easily enough. I'll stay with Tao and protect him.”

“Thank you. And make sure he understands that it's not his fault, and I don't blame him.”

She just raised an eyebrow and pointed again.

 

* * *

 

The trail led away from the Vella toward a small cliffside far to its right. He traveled the distance before the moon was in the middle of the sky. The grasshoppers' songs changed, warning him, welcoming him back. Ruh growled and sunk into an offensive stance.

Dar pulled his sword from the strap on his back.

His progress was slower then as he slipped through the brush. Trees were thin here, and only a few more meters of ground was left before the drop. Night animals called to him, talking about traps and dangers. Still, he had to press forward in order to help Tao.

Ferns and small saplings acted as the last few inches of cover. Dar nodded Ruh over to the right while he walked out into the open. A small, flat rock was lying right in the middle of the remaining space, almost as if it had been brought there and dropped. On it rested the Crystal Ark, Balcifer's furious body writhing and pulsing, just as always. He had yet to be released, then.

Dar took another step forward and looked around. The drop was probably a good twelve meters – potentially survivable, but dangerous nevertheless. Still, a man could climb it if he had a mind to, so Dar kept his senses alert as he turned to look left, then right.

“I take it you didn't come alone, then, if you hold your sword in your right hand and yet look left first.”

Dar swung around, pointing his sword at the form behind him, coming up from his blind spot. Had he been followed? But no, the man didn't know about Ruh. He only believed Dar wasn't alone – he didn't say anything about a tiger.

“You must be the one who defeated Balcifer. You're a warrior.”

“Who are you? What did you do to Tao?”

The man didn't seem concerned with Dar's sword or his demands, even though he was unarmed. Ruh asked Dar if he was needed. _Not yet._

“You speak of the Eiron. He should be able to move by now.”

Dar remembered Tao's staggering. “He can't walk well.” Though he never could.

The man shrugged. “I suppose he's not used to being paralyzed, then. He should be able to move normally soon enough. He's not the one I'm to kill.”

The man spoke as if he was speaking of boring gossip. Was he not Dar's enemy? He'd incapacitated Tao so quickly, even though Tao had learned to fight pretty well. Perhaps more telling, this man spoke as if he'd been ordered by someone. If the man had magic and wasn't Dar's biggest concern, whoever was would be formidable. “You're to kill me.”

Tao was right. The man had wanted Dar to follow after him. He'd wanted to be found.

“That's right.” The man bowed slightly and spread into an odd stance, one Dar had never seen before. It placed his legs about an arm's length apart, while one arm tucked near his stomach and the other spread like a weapon before him. Dar held his sword before him and stepped to the right. The man mirrored him, maintaining the distance. Dar saw no weaknesses in how he moved.

Something changed; the atmosphere of the area shifted until they were both moving toward one another, Dar already ducking low to dodge the man's fist and sweep his sword up. He stopped at the last moment as the man didn't dodge. Dar couldn't go through with the move. As a sword, his weapon would slice the man in half. Silently, the man stepped around Dar's attack. Dar slid back, bringing his sword back up before him.

“You fear harming me because I may be human, correct?” Something shivered along the edges of the man's clothes. Up his neck crawled black lines, flickering almost like a black fire. It climbed up his cheeks and writhed. The man dug into a fold in his pants.

_Ruh! Now!_

Ruh roared out from his hiding place. The man ducked and turned, but he didn't startle. Ruh roared again and trotted up to the man, leaning down into his own attack stance. Dar held out his sword.

“And yet you still do not attack me,” the man said. He pulled out a small, thin red stone and rolled it into his palm. Black flames licked up the sides of his face, seared red for an instant, and then fire rose in his eyes. The light was like a beacon in the darkness of the night. He opened his palm.

Dar threw himself to the side before he even understood the impulse. Flames scorched the air where he'd stood. He rolled to his feet and swung around to face the man again. The stranger was frowning, but he simply reached into a small hole in his pants – wouldn't Tao have called it a pocket if it were in a satchel? – and pulled out another gem. The man rolled it up into his palm and enclosed his fingers in it again. Then he paused.

Dar hesitated, stopped himself from attacking, and watched. The man looked down at Balcifer, still roiling around like he was pushing against the glass, then back up at Dar. “I am a messenger boy,” he said, his teeth gritted. Then he turned, picked up the Crystal Ark, and in one smooth motion, walked the last step off the cliff.

Dar raced forward, Ruh at his heels, but when he reached the edge, nothing stood below. No flutter of the man's black clothing, no odd movement in the faraway trees.

Balcifer was gone.

 

* * *

 

The Vella hive was still abuzz from the earlier attack. Dar and Ruh arrived with the moon still high in the sky, pre-dawn still well away. Dar looked around, somehow unable to reconcile the area's feeling of tranquility with the danger the world once again faced. Balcifer was loose. But how? Why had that man taken him? Those who had served Balcifer were the Sorceress, Zad, and the Apparition. The Sorceress had turned away from him, Zad was dead, and the Apparition had lost her powers. Dar had never seen that man before.

More, why now? Why attack after all this time? Because they'd let their guard down?

He walked up to where Tao still slept. He was on his side now, his sleep more natural. What was happening? Over the past months, Dar had worked to acclimate to a life in the castle and help a people ravaged by the Terrons. Tao and Arina had guarded the Ark, all while taking their own positions in life. Tao had taken a position on Xinca's newly-made counsel, and he was often turned to for decisions. He was also the leader of Eirokan, along with Arina, who divvied up her time between Eirokan and Xinca, teaching both self-defense and the lost teachings of the Namib. Their world was beginning to stabilize.

And now this.

The Vella walked around him, smiling in greeting as they passed. He recognized only a few of them from earlier that night, which meant that most others had lain down to sleep. Mother Vella wouldn't wake until morning. He stopped one blond on her way out of the hive. “Is there anywhere I could rest?”

She bowed her head slightly. “Of course.” She led him through a small passageway to a room. It was no bigger than the bed within it, and he was surprised to find himself feeling two conflicting emotions at once. While his old self simply shrugged and thanked the accommodations for being dry, the newer, kingly part of him was disturbed by the lack of space and the stone slab with a blanket that was to act as his bed. Still, he thanked her and stepped inside.

The real question, he knew, was what he was going to do. He was king now. It had taken him a while to fully understand what that meant, but he did now. He had a responsibility to his people – to all of his people, human and animal. And one of those responsibilities was to live. Which meant he was to stay back and send others to do the dangerous work. Sendar, perhaps, or Randar. Or anyone else who had sworn their loyalty to him and been able to cross the mist to his side.

Still. Who else could defeat Balcifer but him? It wasn't arrogance that made him ask such a question, simply fact. It had been his destiny. He'd been the one the world had relied on before. He was the one the world would rely on again. He was, after all, king.

The bed was uncomfortable, after all the time he'd spent in the castle. Yet he was grateful for it. He'd felt a distance separating him from his old life, from his old friends. It had… scared him. When once he'd always been aware of the movements of the forest, he found he had to rely on tidbits of information from Sharak, who often called to him out of sheer boredom. And Tao, whom he'd always had by his side, had entered Xinca alone, without him even knowing. Tao could have been in danger, and Dar would never have known. Arina, too, had traveled everywhere, and he'd never heard the outcomes of those travels.

Why was it that becoming king had meant leaving everything behind?

In any case, he at least had something now to keep him out of the castle. Maybe he could bridge the gap between himself and his friends. Maybe he could learn about what happened when Tao went to Xinca, or where Arina had traveled.

Of course, first he had to stop Balcifer from being released and catch whoever that man had been.

He didn't know how long he was asleep, but he awoke with a snap from the depths of slumber. He reached for his sword before he'd blinked the grit from his eyes, and had stood before he'd finished pulling his sword to him. A few moments later, one of the blond Vella raced to his room.

“They're here,” she whispered, her eyes wide. Dar stepped forward, taking the lead through the small halls into the Queen's main chamber. The walls, bare but for the mummified bodies of those scholars who had come before, were almost hidden by the bodies of the Vella, each looking out toward the exit, each curling their pinkies, ready to attack. He held up one hand as he passed them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Arina and Tao enter the room, as well.

Dawn had broken. The light was still pink, still new, lending the very air a sense of rebirth. Dew sat wetly upon the stalks of grass, upon the leaves. Yet the world around the entrance to the Vella home was silent. Everything seemed to be holding its breath.

There, before the entrance, two men stood. The one from before was on the right, slightly behind the other. He stood still as stone. His face bore no expression.

The other grinned widely and stepped forward. “Hello! You must be King Dar.” He swept into a rather theatrical bow. His hair was dark, like the one Dar had met before, but this man's hair was longer, and several pieces were ringed separately, pulling each into a small mass that eventually meshed at his back and ran free, like sand through holes, or perhaps like water. The rest of the man, however, was bedecked in yellow. Dar frowned. “I see you can't get rid of everything so easily.” And the man pointed to his head, right in the center. With a jerk, Dar realized that he'd never taken off his crown. The man grinned fit to split his face. “Such an idiosyncratic style you have – a loincloth and a crown. How do the two mesh?”

Dar tightened his grip on his sword. “Where's Balcifer?”

The man waved Dar's question away. “Oh, don't worry about him. I won't release him or anything. There's just something wonderful about seeing an old rival defeated, isn't there?” The man laughed.

Dar frowned. Rival? Who would dare be Balcifer's rival? “Who are you?”

“I'm Awun. He's Jabez.” The man pointed a thumb toward the man who'd attacked Tao, then held his hand out to Dar. “I'm the God of Destruction.”

Dar paused. Behind him, he heard a gasp. He turned. Tao and Arina stood in the entrance, just inside the hive. Tao's eyes were wide.

“Ah! You must be the scholar Jabez met. Allow me to apologize for his behavior. Honestly, it's my fault.” He bowed slightly to Tao, then looked up into Tao's green-brown eyes. “I should have told him to destroy such a person as you.”

Dar swung his sword out, pointing its tip at Awun's throat.

Awun laughed again. “Ah, yes. The sword of light. Balcifer failed rather miserably, allowing you to gain so many tools.” His gaze flickered again to Tao. “I hope I don't make that same mistake.” He looked into Dar's eyes, but Dar was implacable. “Fine,” he said, and sighed. “I won't be foolish enough to try to make a deal with you, but I did wish to converse a bit. I see that will no longer happen.” He shrugged. “I am what I am. I love destruction. Ruin. Its absence in this world has… disturbed me. If nothing else, Balcifer had brought forth that much.”

“What are you doing here?” Tao asked, stepping closer, though staying safely behind Dar's sword. “It's said you were banished from the world, that the Triad–”

“Do you even know what the Triad is?” the man asked, looking on Tao with a raised brow.

“Disaster, Darkness, and Destruction,” Tao answered immediately. Dar almost smiled. Trust Tao to know, and to not hesitate to show his knowledge.

“That's right.” The man's gaze fell to Tao's hand. “Ah. An Eiron, no less. Hm. Balcifer certainly failed in allowing the two of you close. The fool.”

This man was different from any evil god he'd ever before known. Dar hesitated.

“Don't do that,” Awun said, just as Jabez rushed forward. The man held a small dagger, and with a clang, it met Dar's sword. Dar had to step back to keep his balance. “Don't underestimate me. I would hate to win so easily.”

Jabez snarled as he pushed against Dar. “Dar!” Tao and Arina surged forward.

“We're leaving, Jabez,” Awun said. Just like that, Jabez shoved away from Dar. Awun waved good-bye, and shadows crept along their legs. Tao yelped and scuttled back, almost tripping in his haste. The shadows wrapped like vines around Awun and Jabez, until they were swallowed within. Then the shadows disappeared, and they were gone.

Tao fell to his butt on the ground and stared glumly ahead. “Great.”

Dar waited, then turned. “Tao?”

Tao looked up at Dar. The scholar didn't smile. “This is bad, Dar.”


	2. An Unwanted Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Spoilers through the end of the series. Specific mentions of S3 E15, “Sisters,” S2 E16, “Fifth Element,” S2 E8, “White Tiger,” and S1 E9, “Circle of Life.”

“ _This is a holy man.”_

* * *

The Triad, a league of three gods that had once brought about the end of the world. The Ancient One had been the one to fight them off, yet he'd only been able to capture one. The other two had been banished to another realm. Balcifer had been from that other realm, wherever it was. Over time, Tao presumed, the banishment had weakened. Whatever had forced them away had lost its power. It was probably why Balcifer's first act when he'd come for Dar had been to kill the Ancient One.

“But who was the one the Ancient One had caught?” Arina asked. “And why is this one attacking now, after Balcifer's been defeated?”

“I've thought about that,” Tao said, his thumb to his lips. They were all in the Vella's storage room. Tao had called it 'The Cave of Wonders.' The name had made Dar smile. Of course, the bare space on the altar where the Ark had sat was sobering. “Dar, remember when I grabbed that scepter and loosed that demon?”

Dar thought back. “When you'd been turned into a werewolf.”

“A what?” Arina asked, turning from one to the other.

“That's right,” Tao said, too lost in thought to give Arina the proper attention. She stewed where she sat against a leg of the altar. “The man – Anubis – called himself the lord of chaos. I hadn't thought much of it – I'd had a couple of other things on my mind – but I think maybe that was one of the Triad. Chaos is merely randomized disaster, after all.”

Dar perked up. “You mean the one the Ancient One captured?”

Tao nodded.

“Is anyone going to clue me in?” Arina asked.

“Sorry,” Tao said, obviously still distracted. “It was before you came back, after you left Voden. While traveling with Dar, I accidentally released an evil man. He attacked the world and its people before Dar and the Ancient One managed to trap him again.”

Arina harrumphed. “I shouldn't be surprised. You seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.”

Tao scowled, but he couldn't argue. He often mentioned it himself. “Still. To learn that the Triad was real…”

“So why wait until now?” Arina asked again. “You fought Balcifer over four moon cycles ago. Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to fight us then? We would most likely have lost.”

But Tao was already shaking his head. “The Triad had only worked together that one time, and yeah, they had almost completely destroyed everything. All life. The Ancient One was only able to save the small amount that remained because the three had started bickering.

“But each wanted to take claim to the worst of the disaster. Darkness said it had done the worst, because it had blanketed the world in cold and shadow. Disaster had said it had done the worst, because it had sown the seeds of discontent that had led to the world turning on itself, and animals turning upon their brethren. Destruction said it had done the worst, because it had been the instigator of collapse, and because nothing would have changed at all if not for its hand in the final process. Each was right, and each was wrong. They had all contributed, and all had caused the world's downfall. Yet each was proud and greedy for superiority. They would most likely never have joined sides again – then again, they wouldn't have needed to if the Ancient One hadn't stepped in.” Tao sighed and leaned his head back.

Dar frowned. Tao had said he was just fine after Jabez's attack, but Tao had a penchant for covering up the worst of his injuries. He kept a close eye on the Eiron as he turned to Arina. “We need to stop him.”

“Dar, that's going to be easier said than done,” Tao said. He looked up at the cave's ceiling. “How do you fight Destruction? It's like trying to fight death. You just can't do it. There is no light that can break through that kind of darkness.”

“Nonetheless, I have to do it. My kingdom is in danger.”

Both turned their gazes on him, looking a bit shocked. He frowned. “What?”

“Nothing,” Tao said, smiling.

“It's just strange to hear you call the land your kingdom,” Arina said, making Dar frown again. “Just like it's strange to see you wearing that.”

He knew she was talking about his crown. It felt like a lead weight now that Awun had mentioned it. He resisted the urge, not for the first time, to reach up for it.

“Not like it's bad or anything.” Tao's words turned Dar's attention back to him. “It's who you are. Your destiny. And it suits you.”

“You do look pretty good like that, my king,” Arina said with a smirk.

Dar smiled.

“Now,” Tao said, and clapped his hands together, “about that Jabez person…”

* * *

Tao could literally feel his mind working, spinning over and over in his head. He tried to remember all he could about the Triad, but the teachings were old, and they had been altered by time. That was why written language was so important, though Dar and Arina didn't quite seem to understand that piece of it. They had learned the usefulness of being able to refer to previous knowledge back when Tao had found that old book about the Eldar prophecy, but they hadn't understood the importance of being able to see word for word what had been said. The legend of the Triad was purely an oral story – one passed down through word of mouth. And that, over time, changed. He could only know the vague pieces of information – that the Triad had been founded on the desire to finally destroy everything, and that each, when working together, had almost been able to succeed, defeated only by a man more powerful than all of them combined.

Why had Balcifer been able to get so close to destroying the world all by himself, then? Why had he been able to do such damage on his own?

But he _hadn't_ destroyed the world, he reminded himself. Balcifer had brought darkness to the world, and had sown both chaos and destruction, but he'd been unable to completely destroy anything. Because of Dar, or because of his own fallibility? Perhaps Balcifer's darkness could have eventually destroyed the world, but not quickly? Or perhaps plunging the world into darkness and confining it to a life similar to what Zad had to offer hadn't truly been destruction. It had only been change.

Tao paused. If Balcifer had only wanted darkness and evil in the world, then wouldn't that mean Awun wanted nothing but destruction and death? He shivered. That sounded even worse. Awun would want everything laid to waste. And the Ancient One was no longer around to stop him.

That had been why Awun had visited Dar. Dar was the king now, and the representation of goodness. Perhaps Dar also represented a sort of preservation, something directly opposite destruction. Didn't Dar always attempt to spare a man his life, no matter who he was or what he had done?

Tao rubbed at his temples. He looked around, vaguely surprised to see that he'd made his way back to his bedchamber without bumping into anything. He was memorizing the twists and turns of the Vella's home. Perhaps he'd stayed here too long. But where else was he to go? He'd been protecting the Ark, and he'd not really had a home in Xinca anymore, even with the Council seat he'd been reluctantly offered. If he were to travel, where would he go? Somewhere to spread knowledge? Or perhaps learn? It sounded more like aimless wandering after all he'd done with Dar.

He sat on his stone bed and tried to focus. He was the one everyone turned to for knowledge. Now that everything in their world had changed again, it would be up to him to give guidance once more.

But where to begin? He knew nothing more about Awun. He'd never heard of a demon or sorcerer called Jabez, and he'd never heard of a magic that used the earth's shining stones.

If the guide didn't know the way, then how would the travelers reach their destination?

* * *

Arina stood outside the Vella Keep as the dawn crept through the sky. They would be leaving soon, though if Tao really didn't know anything more, then she couldn't guess where they would go. Dar was searching the area where he'd fought Jabez, hoping to find something for them to go on.

Jabez. It was a Namib word. It meant 'cursed.'

Why such a name? She paced outside the entrance, one hand curled over the hilt of her sword. Was it a message? But why send a message to her? And why in the form of someone's name?

She turned, about to go tell Tao, but something stopped her. If she told him, he would probably ask her more questions about her people. Questions she didn't want to answer. And what if he asked a question she didn't know? All she'd learned, she'd found through her travels. She'd been but a babe when her home had been attacked, after all. What would it be like to be asked a question she couldn't answer?

No. She would wait for Dar first. Maybe he would have something for them to go on. She could only hope.

* * *

How could it be both frustrating and exhilarating? Dar crouched to the ground again, dismayed that there were no footprints after Jabez had jumped from the cliff's edge. It was all supposed to be a mess. He'd lost Balcifer, and another source of evil had come to destroy the world. Why did he feel happy about that?

He sat on his haunches, contemplating the scene. The grass had popped back up, recovering quickly from the battle that had taken place only hours ago. The wind was calm, sifting slowly through the trees. Far from the edge of the cliff, hills of trees rolled like waves. It all looked peaceful. The dirt was still churned up in some places, leaving the roots of some plants bare. One portion was scorched, burnt from the magic Jabez had used.

He sighed. It wasn't Awun that made him happy, but being back around Tao and Arina. Exhilaration. Had he missed them so much? So much that an impending disaster couldn't dampen his spirits?

Apparently.

Ruh sidled up beside him, looking over the remains of the battlefield and huffing.

“I know,” Dar said. “You're right; let's go. We're not getting anything else here.”

It was a slow walk back, with Dar fruitlessly trying to think of a way to find the god Awun and the stolen Crystal Ark. But why was the god coming to him? He'd alluded to wanting to kill Dar, yet he was already able to manifest himself on the earth. Why, then, was he coming after Dar? And why hadn't he pressed his advantages when he'd had them?

He started rushing then, jogging through the underbrush. Ruh kept up with him with little more than a grumble about the lack of warning. The Vella Keep wasn't far, and he made it with barely a length of the sun at his back. Arina was outside, keeping watch. She turned hopeful eyes to him, but saw his answer even before he shook his head. She turned to the entrance. “Tao has been in his room. I don't think he has anything, either.”

Dar's brow furrowed, but then he smiled. “Don't worry, Arina,” he said. “We'll figure something out.”

She seemed to smile despite herself. “I should have known you'd see it that way.”

“Ruh, stay here and guard the Vella.”

Ruh huffed and lay down, glaring at Dar. He'd had every intention of doing just that.

Dar smiled. “Thank you.”

Tao was right where Arina said he was, sitting on his own stone bed, just a few doors down from Dar's, his face scrunched, as it was whenever he was having a hard time figuring something out.

“Tao.”

Tao looked up, a flash of guilt ready in his features, but he ended up smiling when he saw the grin on Dar's face. “Hey. Welcome back. Did you find something?”

Dar shook his head, his grin waning at the reminder. He'd just been happy to see Tao. “No, nothing.” Tao's brow furrowed. “Tao, tell me more about Awun.”

Tao sighed and shook his head. He looked tired. Dar frowned. Had his friend stayed up all night and day worrying at this? “I don't know much more than I told you. He's part of the Triad that was said to attempt to destroy the world. The God of Destruction, known to bring pestilence, ruin, and death.” Tao waved one hand, his mind obviously still on something else. Dar sat beside him on the bed. “He's said to be the most incomprehensible, as he governs the passage into the land of death, a land no living man can travel.” Tao spared him a quick grin. “Though, I suppose, rare cases do exist.”

Dar grinned back.

Tao's grin faded. “I don't like this, Dar. The stories I know are vague – they mention his strength, his ability, but I don't know how far his reach is. He's already shown his corporeal form. How much power does he already have, if he can do that? Zad destroyed so much. We haven't had enough time to fix things. Xinca is barely pulling itself back together, and the other parts of the world are still struggling.”

Dar put a hand on Tao's shoulder. “Tell me the stories.”

Tao took a deep breath and nodded. “They say he owns no hate, yet he craves destruction. One story says that he pet a tree as he sucked the life from it. Another that he laughed as he stood upon the carcasses of the dead. It's all jumbled – back then, no one wrote anything down.” He shook his head, frustrated. “I can't even tell you where the stories originated. They were so old, only the Eiron Elders knew them.”

Dar felt the tension in Tao's muscles. “It's all right, Tao. We'll figure it out.”

Tao huffed a laugh. “You and your optimism.” He rubbed his head. “I've tried to think of where we could start, but I know so little. And this isn't information easily gleaned. Even the Vella don't have any records of it.” At Dar's raised eyebrow, Tao grinned again. “You didn't think I stayed here without looking through their records?”

Dar shook his own head. “I should have known.”

“Yes. Yes, you should have.” But again, Tao's humor was quickly lost. “Without a lead to go on, we have no place to start. I'm sorry, Dar.”

“Don't be.” Dar took Tao and Arina with him to the Vella storage room. “If we can't recall such things, then we simply find someone who can.”

“Someone that old? Only the Sorceress could, and she's holed herself up in the Ancient One's old tower.” Tao waved the idea off.

But Dar was already shaking his head. “No.” He raised his hands to his head and gently, gently took the crown. He placed it in the middle of the altar, right where the Crystal Ark had once stood. “No,” he said again. “There's one other who may be able to help us. Iara.”

Tao raised his gaze from the crown to Dar. His eyes were wide. “Iara? She's back?”

“Are you kidding me?” Arina muttered.

“It's a good place to start. A woman – one of those from the town we helped, Tao – came to see me. She said Iara seemed agitated.”

Tao seemed ready to make a smart remark about that, but then his eyes brightened and he grinned again. “Agitated? Then she might know about Awun. She did know Anubis.”

“Exactly,” Dar said. Arina was looking up at the ceiling, and when Dar focused on her, he saw something in her expression that he couldn't quite place. Like relief. She caught him looking and gave him a cocky grin and a one-shoulder shrug. Dar smiled back and let it go. He turned back to Tao. “We just need to catch her before she runs off again.”

“Can she do that without that other Sorceress?” Tao asked, but Dar was already moving. Both Tao and Arina scuttled out of the cave after him. “I didn't think she possessed that sort of power. She was powerless against Anubis, after all.”

“I don't know. But if she can, she will.”

“That's true enough,” Tao said under his breath. “That woman makes cowards seem brave.”

Dar huffed a laugh, and Tao rewarded him with a bright grin. Dar felt a peace in his heart as they traveled forward, waving good-bye to the Vella as they passed. Ruh silently joined them as they headed out. For some reason, even though the world was falling apart, his life felt like it was slotting into place.

* * *

“So Tao was in the marketplace, just standing there, telling everyone who could hear that their king wouldn't allow such a wasteful treatment of furs, and that they should all be ashamed of themselves, and do you know what that fat man actually said to him?” At Dar's questioning look, Arina grinned. “He said, 'I'll have you know that 'pile' is my wife!'” She crowed with laughter, earning her a glare from Tao.

“You couldn't tell, either,” he said.

“But you were the one going off on the man! Oh, the scraping Tao had to do after that. It was fantastic, Dar. You should have been there.”

Dar smiled, but the words held a weight within him. He clapped Tao on the shoulder. “Thank you for standing up for the animals.”

Tao's glower instantly melted away. “There are rules in Xinca now. How much meat one can have at once, the use of animal's bodies. No animals in captivity. It's not much, but Arina and I worked to ensure your work was continued.”

Arina snorted. “I was hardly ever there, and you were the one on the Council. You made them shut up and do as you ordered.”

Tao looked to the ground and shrugged. Dar frowned at the odd show. “In any case,” Tao said, clearing his throat, “the village should be close. Will the woman you spoke to be there?”

“Probably not,” Dar said, letting Tao change the subject. “She was afraid she would be attacked by Iara for coming to me. She'll probably stay in the castle for a while.”

Tao nodded, looking around at the trees as if he'd never seen them before. His eyes got that lost look that happened sometimes, the look of him looking back at his past and seeing something beyond what Dar's eyes could follow. Dar saw Tao's brows furrow for an instant before he shook his head and smiled back at Dar. “How's the castle doing? Did you leave Sendar in charge?”

Dar shook his head. “No. Sendar is off to settle an area being attacked by bandits. He also chose to never take my place on the throne. I think it scares him, what he almost did.”

Arina snorted, speaking up for the first time since this conversation began. “It should.”

Dar gave her a cross look, but she only stared back at him, daring him to bring it up. It actually made him feel warm. While the rest of his family was happy to let the knowledge go, almost as if to bring it up would make it far too real for them, Arina was showing her support for him first and foremost before worrying about family dynamics. And Tao, Dar knew, would silently back up whatever choice Dar made.

The conversation got stilted again after that, with Tao gamely bringing up his lack of travel in the area for a while, and Dar grasped it with a relieved sigh. Things had changed enough that talk was no longer effortless. He felt the gap between him and the others again, until finally Sharak screeched above him and showed him Iara, storming toward the village, her steps making the waves by the town rock faster than normal. Dar ran forward, and just like that, things were normal again – Arina and Tao followed immediately after, asking what Sharak had seen. When he gave a terse explanation – “Iara is heading to the village” – both hurried their footsteps.

The village was still a ways away when they breached the thin inlet and crested the sandy shore, but they could see the outline of the huts. The place looked empty, everyone most likely hiding from Iara as she stomped around, screaming slightly and pulling tufts of sand to the sky. Dar ran forward. “Iara! Stop!”

She turned to Dar, her eyes alighting for a moment before narrowing dangerously. “You were supposed to have gotten rid of the danger, Dar,” she hissed, turning that rage of hers on him. Tao and Arina came up beside him, each tensing for a fight. “Oh, back off, you little guppies.” And she hissed out her snake tongue at them, her scales shimmering in the sun. Tao lifted his chin.

“You shouldn't take your anger out on these villagers,” Dar said, carefully readying himself to pull out his sword. He wished he knew how to turn it back to his staff. “What are you doing back here?”

“That Sorceress girl came and told me you had won,” she said, glaring up at him, even as she slithered closer to him, until she could put her hands on his chest. He looked down at her, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed. It seemed little had changed for her. “That you defeated Balcifer. I demanded she bring me back so I could see you again.”

Dar huffed and rolled his eyes.

She pushed away from him, scowling at his action. “I wanted to see you, Dar. Shouldn't that make you happy?”

“Coming to see him only after the danger has passed?” Tao asked, glaring at the woman. “Why should that make him happy?”

She hissed at him.

Dar sighed. “What do you want, Iara?”

“Just to spend some time with you,” she said, jutting out her lower lip a bit, touching her slim shoulder in some caricature of a self-hug. “Of course, that was before I found that you hadn't erased the danger, after all. You merely opened the way for a worse evil.” She glared up at him. “Why didn't you take care of him, too?”

“We didn't know about him,” Tao said. “Maybe if someone had stayed…”

“Tao,” Dar said, and Tao fell silent, though he still sent baleful glares Iara’s way. “There's something else you want, right? Or else you wouldn't have come to this village for your temper tantrum.” She tensed at the term, but Dar continued. “We need your help in understanding Awun. If we help you with your problem, will you help us with ours?”

Her eyes glinted at the idea of it. “So,” she said, twining up against him again and running one petite finger in small circles on his chest, “you'll do anything I ask?”

Arina made a disgusted noise.

“Not that,” he said, gently prising himself free of her.

She crossed her arms and turned away from him. “Then why should I help you?”

Dar sighed again. “Because you have another problem. One you're too afraid to take care of yourself.” At Arina's surprised look, he explained, even as Iara's back got tense. “She came into the village to 'recruit' people for the cause.”

“You've gotten smart,” Iara said, turning her head to glare at him. Dar thought he saw something in Tao's eyes that spoke of the distance between them. “Fine. I have a problem.” She twisted back around to him, placing her hands on her small hips and canting her head to the side. “I can't hear my jailors anymore,” she said. “They're silent. Maybe dead.”

“Jailors?” Arina asked. But Tao gasped.

Dar frowned. “You have a jail?”

“Just one,” she said, smiling at him. Her eyes, however, were cold. “They were keeping something very important for me, but I haven't heard from them since I returned.”

“Maybe you shouldn't have left, then, if it was so important to you,” Arina said. Dar looked at Tao, who seemed to be working something in his jaw.

“Where is it?” Dar asked, turning back to Iara, unwilling to ask Tao what it was while Iara could still hear them.

But Iara just shook her head and crept closer to him again, touching her hand to his chest. Arina made another disgusted noise, a bit louder this time. “You already know, Dar,” she said, breathing the words into his ear. “I'll even let you go back, but only if you promise me one thing.”

“And what would that be?” he asked in a normal tone, ruining the private atmosphere. She backed away from him and smiled.

“Bring it back to me.”

“No,” Tao snapped, staring at Dar. “Dar, she only has one prison. And you know what's in there. _Who.”_

The words snapped him to the memory, diving into water, only to have what he was reaching for sink beneath his grasp each time.

“Curupira,” Dar breathed.

“The demon who gave you the power to talk with the animals?” Arina asked.

“We won't give her back to you,” Tao said, and Dar nodded.

“Hmm. Well, then, I guess I won't let you in. And if you don't get to her, then I won't help you with Awun,” Iara said, smiling.

“We'll find our own way,” Dar said, and turned around, only to turn right back to Iara. “And don't harm the villagers.”

“Or what?” she asked. “You won't hurt me,” she said, smiling at him.

“No,” he said. “But my army might take exception.”

She frowned, and with that, Dar turned and left, Tao and Arina following dutifully behind him.

* * *

“That must be fun,” Arina said, “pulling out the army card. Nothing like being king to get people to listen to you.”

“There's still no guarantee that she will listen,” he said, and looked at her. “Could you watch her?”

Arina sighed. “Somehow, I just knew that was going to happen.” Still, she nodded. “Sure, I'll watch the little snake,” she said, grinning at him. “If I'm lucky, I might still have a fight on my hands.”

Dar chuckled lightly and shook his head. Arina backtracked the way they'd come, ducking low through a cloud of sapling branches into the bushy trail that led to the sand. Tao watched quietly for a moment, following Dar with his eyes. “So,” he said finally. “Curupira.”

Dar sighed. He remembered the way the two had interacted. She hadn't been a fan of Tao, not only because he was human but because he pulled Dar's focus from the animals. He remembered clearly the fear he'd felt, watching Curupira order Tao with her after he'd lost himself to his animal instincts, watching her take Tao away when there was nothing Dar could do to protect his friend from her capricious wrath. If he was even more honest with himself, he'd say he was still afraid of having the two near one another again. But she was an infinitely better choice for the animals, and he owed her for the gift she'd given him. If he could save her, it was his job to do so. He opened his mouth to say this to Tao, but Tao spoke first.

“Do you think it's possible? That she escaped?”

Dar closed his mouth again. Of course he needn't explain himself to Tao. He closed his eyes, then opened them again, focusing on getting them away from the village and the sea's salty breath. The forest edged the far shores, and it was only a few minutes before they were deep within its grip. “I don't know. We were so busy with Balcifer that we didn't think about whether his attacks might have loosened Curupira from her cage.”

“But she never came to see you,” Tao said. “Wouldn't she, if she were loose? If for no other reason than to yell at you for something?”

Dar smiled at the thought. “Maybe she couldn't pass through the mist to get to me.”

“Because she's a demon? But the animals know you're out here again, right? She must know, too.”

The animals in the forest knew, but they were trying to not call for his help. Dar could hear the way they would sometimes silence themselves as he came near. It was something he'd never encountered before. Was Curupira silencing them, or was there another reason? “I don't know, Tao. She may be injured, or something may just be blocking the prison guards from Iara.”

Tao frowned at that. “What could do that?”

Dar watched Tao's eyes unfocus slightly and automatically searched for a flatter path through the brush. Tao frowned, cocked an eyebrow, tilted his head. He only tripped once, and never fell to the ground. It was an amazing switch from how he started, constantly stumbling over his own feet. Dar wondered if Tao's fighting had improved, as well, then shook his head. Who would Tao have been fighting while Dar was away?

“I doubt it would have been Awun or his follower,” Tao said finally, returning from his mind. Dar allowed himself to hurry his pace again. Tao hardly noticed the change. “Neither of them seemed interested in Curupira or Iara. They were focused more on you.” The way his voice dipped didn't pass Dar unnoticed.

Dar pulled up a branch for Tao, who stood for a second and looked at the branch as if it were something he'd never seen before. Then he smiled and passed through. Dar let it fall behind them and continued on. Dar let Tao take the lead, simply guiding him with words when they started to stray from the path. The last part of the journey meant leading Tao through a rather difficult area, filled with vines and thorns and exposed roots.

“You know,” Tao said as Dar carefully removed a nest of detritus to show a high tree root, “I'm much better than I used to be. My balance has improved – you said so yourself before, remember? And I haven't fallen in – oof!”

Dar turned from the tree root to see Tao in the dirt, his foot entangled in a looping vine. Dar quickly apologized to the snake who'd been resting within and grabbed Tao's arm to help him up. Tao slanted him a look as he did. “Not one word,” he warned.

Dar laughed.

* * *

For all that Iara had said she wouldn't let them in, there seemed to be nothing in the way of the path to the river in which Curupira was being held, and nothing stopped their steady progress during the two days' travel. Tao had finally settled on a topic – shiny stones, of all things – and he was thinking out loud about all of their possible uses. He went over holistic uses, of which he'd spoken a few times before, explaining to Dar how some people used to believe those with chronic headaches could be cured by purple stones called amethysts. Tao had once scorned it as a fool's practice, made only to make people feel better and not to actually produce results, but Jabez's use of the gems had made Tao start looking into the things again. He mourned the lack of information in the Vella's home, but they had believed about the same as him on the matter.

Dar started listening with only half an ear as Tao speculated and conjectured over whether the healing properties were exaggerated but not the detrimental effects, or if something else was needed to activate them – on this, Tao altered from sorcery to those odd markings on Jabez's skin. Dar hardly noticed how he would slow minutely to pick out poisonous plants and vines from their path. He only vaguely noticed how he would ask a few animals out of Tao's oblivious path; another snake, a couple of lizards awaiting a meal on a vine, a rather cross-looking fox that was gorging itself on a midday meal.

But he did notice when the buzzing noise in the back of his head changed tone and halted a few steps behind him.

“Dar.”

That was all it took for Dar to turn to Tao. His friend stood wide-eyed not five paces away, staring at him, then at nothing, then back to Dar. “I can't go forward.”

Dar immediately returned to his friend's side. “You can't move?”

While Dar's thoughts flashed to the sight of Tao struggling to stand, Tao dispelled the notion with a shake of his head. “No, not that.” And he proved it to Dar by taking a step back, then forward again. But as he walked forward, he held a hand protectively before him. As Dar watched, his hand stopped cold, right there in the middle of the air, and his arm bent slightly as if reacting to some sort of impact. “I can't go forward. Something's stopping me.”

Sorcery. Dar itched to take out his staff, then found his fingers inching to the sword on his back, his body already tense to swing in a downward arc, something he would never do with a staff. The idea took a moment for his mind to register, then another for it to adjust. “Why can I go through, then?”

Tao's frown was strong. “I don't like it. If it's an enemy, then they're trying to get you alone.”

An enemy. Tao didn't say it, but Dar knew he was thinking about Awun. “If?”

Tao hesitated, as if he didn't even want to say what was on his mind. It was such a novel concept it made Dar stand at the ready. “If Curupira is free,” he said, each syllable seeming to be tested before spoken, “then she may be trying to make it so only you can go to speak with her.”

Did Cururpira have such power? Dar turned back to the prison, still a good sun's space away. Was she waiting? It would explain why the animals weren't talking to him. Had she ordered them to remain silent about her return? Was the time it took for him to reach her some sort of test? He turned back to Tao. He had no doubt she would keep Tao away if she could.

But he knew that wasn't why Tao had been averse to telling Dar his theory. The threat of it being an enemy was still there; Jabez could have created a trap. Tao had known that wouldn't matter, however, as soon as Dar thought Curupira might be waiting for him. He'd known Dar would go ahead, even though Tao had no chance of following after him. Dar would enter danger alone.

Dar gave Tao a reassuring smile that did nothing but make Tao scowl and push harder against whatever barrier stood in his way.

For once, he knew one thing Tao didn't. Curupira hadn’t had the ability, previously, to call barriers into form. If she had, he had no doubt that she would have used them several times, forcibly leading him where she wanted him to go. Which meant she either had a new power – unlikely – or it really was Awun, or Jabez, or another henchman entirely.

Which meant it _was_ an enemy, assuredly, and any who crossed the barrier would face danger.

“I'll be right back,” he said. Tao made an unintelligible sound of protest as Dar hurried away.

The path flew beneath his feet without him slowing for Tao, and it took less than half the sun's traveling for Dar to reach Curupira's prison. The tall grass had grown from disuse, nearly blocking the sight of the water, if not the sound. The sky was blocked by the tall canopy of trees, each sporting moss that hung like curtains nearly to the forest floor.

Curupira was not there. Neither was Awun, nor Jabez. But while there had been silent animals watching Dar's progress, there wasn't even a presence anymore. The forest was empty.

And then someone laughed.

The laugh was high-pitched, tinkling, like bells. They burst like bubbles, jarring Dar into movement.

He hurried to the edge of the river and knelt by its edge. He saw her face, contorted beneath the line of water, impenetrably deep no matter how close to the surface she seemed. It was thin, still heart-shaped like a pixie, her hair curled in little blonde tangles to her tail, shaped into an odd ponytail. Around her neck wound one of Iara's snakes, still keeping Curupira prisoner. More covered her waist, her legs. It all looked just as he remembered, filling the edges time had faded. Her laughter stopped abruptly when she saw him. “Dar? What are you doing here?”

“What indeed?”

The voice was new, and Dar stood again, this time letting his fingers curl around his sword's hilt and pulling it from its scabbard on his back. The voice was from a man, but a new one. Dar pulled his sword before him, putting his back to the river, guarding Curupira from the threat. She hissed up at him. The man looked Dar up and down with ice-cold eyes, the color glittering like a winter's morn. “Who are you?” Dar asked, and watched the man's fingers curl languidly around a gem. His eyes narrowed.

“My name is Septim,” he said, and then no more on the matter. He was tall, as tall as Dar, his eyes wrinkled at the edges, just enough to show the man to be about a decade older than Dar. “The question is, who are you? I demanded only those who could grant me the demon's powers to come. Yet you could not be the one who trapped her here – this is the work of a demon, not a human.”

Dar lifted his chin. “I am Dar,” he said, dropping both the names King and Beastmaster, not knowing which to choose. “Curupira is my friend.”

“Really?” Curupira cooed, apparently having been disarmed by the words, forgetting to be angry at him – for whatever reason she would be angry. But Septim's wintry eyes narrowed.

“You know her? She is the creature of the forest. She doesn't have human friends.” He twirled the gem in his hands – a long, thick black thing, glinting slightly in the thin light. Then he put the long thing behind his ear and grinned. “Are you her chosen?”

Dar moved, just slightly, one step to his left and forward, a little into the man's space. The man either didn't notice or didn't care. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

Septim wore a thin, tan cloak, ratty a bit at its edges and made of what Dar guessed to be leather. The man dipped into a fold and pulled out a couple of jewels. Both were clear, with what looked to be small, ice-like cracks within. “I found out how to get this little baby. Odd, right? I kept thinking it would be something green – natural, you know – or something more like a stone. No idea it would have to be this – clear, boring, with what looks like _frost_ within it. More for the snow demon, right?” The man's face was growing animated, bringing out the wrinkles a bit more as his face lit up. Dar felt something close to a chill sweep down his back. “But no, this is the one. So difficult to figure these things out, you know? Their hidden meanings.” The man waved the two gems, then pointed his chin toward Curupira. “But she's imprisoned. And after all those years searching for the right stone!” The man shook his head as if saddened, but his lips were twisted back. “So I had to lure her captor out, and instead I get you.”

Iara had known. Dar lifted his chin. No, that wasn't certain. Iara may not have known – she certainly seemed to value his existence, after all, if for no reason than a vain hope to eventually bed him. He couldn't be sure. He would have to ask her when he returned. “You were hoping Curupira's captor would just let her go?”

“No, of course not, do I look vapid?”

Dar narrowed his eyes and considered. No, he didn't. “So you wanted to capture her, as well?”

The man tilted his head, just a bit, and Dar realized the man hadn't known the demon holding Curupira was female. He grimaced. Tao was better at this than him. “I only have a small amount of gems on hand,” the man said. “If she doesn't fit in one of them, then I'll have to kill her.”

Dar tightened his grip on his sword and barely refrained from taking another step. Septim was watching him now, paying attention to his movements. His next one would have to count. “Why capture them at all?”

The man pointed to the crystal behind his ear, then pulled out another one. This one was clear, as well, with jagged orange dots inside. “Did you know stones hold power?” he asked, and Dar felt a hiss of something in the air. The man held up the new stone. “These powers all have abilities, if used by the right person. If the right person has the right _power_. And I do.” The man muttered a few odd words, swirled his hand over the gem, and suddenly a flash of shadow coalesced from the gem, for just a minute – a man-like shape, screaming, with dark horns that curled along his head.

Then Dar saw nothing.

His world had turned black.

It wasn't a darkness that was found at night, with the moon and stars offering shapes and shadows. It was a darkness he'd never seen before, an encompassing one. He tensed and strained his ears, but it was unnecessary. Septim didn't bother to hide himself. “Drogar is a low-class demon, and one of the first I caught,” the man said, and Dar listened as he tip-toed further away from the river, back toward where Dar had arrived. For a ridiculous moment, Dar feared the man would run off and bump into Tao. “A rather simple demon, one who brought on the night. When used properly, he can cover a man's eyes with darkness. Interesting, right? It's like teaching a pet new tricks.”

A demon as a pet? Dar only thought of Curupira in such a predicament for a moment before he had to push the image from his mind. “I won't allow it to continue.”

“Yes, I'm sure. Because you're her chosen.”

The man moved again, a bit quicker now, his movements a bit more subtle. But Dar could hear the grass crunching slightly underfoot. He held carefully still, allowing each press of the wind to acknowledge Septim's presence. A small clink, and Dar felt the wind curl, just a bit. He moved then, toward the river, and stopped when his steps squished beneath his weight. From behind him, he heard Curupira hiss.

“Well done,” Septim said. Dar tilted his head and just barely heard the man's clothes rustle in a soft breeze. He was in front of Dar, just barely to his left. Trying to stay out of range of Dar's sword, then.

Dar moved, a quick motion born from an intent to surprise. From the loud crunch of grass a pace or so back, Dar imagined it had succeeded. A few more stepping sounds told Dar the man hadn't quite found his footing, and he pressed his advantage, twirling his blade until it was flat and swinging roughly where Septim's torso would be. He heard a grunt, a short cry, and felt a tremor as his blade hit. It felt wrong. Dar thought he might have hit the man's head. Had he tried to dodge?

Dar pulled his blade back as the man fell to the ground. Something soft pattered; something loud tinkled. Dar sheathed his blade, his heart hammering in his chest. Even with the flat of one's blade, a lot of damage could be done to a man's skull. It wouldn't take much, and Dar hadn't held back.

He strained his ears. After a few moments, the man groaned again. He heard a short, aborted movement, and he thought to be relieved. Then Septim gave out a mighty bellow.

“What have you done?” he shouted, and Dar moved again, getting carefully away from the edge of the river. It gurgled a bit behind him, and he thought one of Iara's guards might have moved. Or had Curupira? Could she?

Septim made several movements then, and Dar heard another soft tinkling sound, and then a loud crack. Septim shouted and scuffled around. The wind around Dar broke, parted, flew from one edge of the clearing to the other. Dar covered his face and ducked low, but nothing attacked him. Something screeched in the air. Septim shouted again. Dar couldn't mistake the sound of fear. “What's happening?” he asked, but Septim either ignored him or couldn't answer.

Suddenly Dar's vision cleared, as if a fog were being swept away, and he squinted as the sunlight blinded him. The wind was like a curtain, a billowing veil of translucent white, nearly flapping in the zephyr. Dar saw Septim on the ground, right where he'd envisioned the man to be. He, too, was covering his face, but his gaze was still drawn to the blowing wind.

As Dar's vision cleared, he found himself turning to stare, as well. The curtain wasn't wind, but what almost seemed to be a cloak. It curled around a pale, pale figure as if a skirt or dress and covered arms down past long, willowy fingers. Near ghost-like, the form floated a few inches from the ground, and Dar finally differentiated enough to see that part of the cloak was actually long, white hair.

The creature turned to him. He caught his first glimpse of eyes so large they seemed nearly bug-like and lips the color of eggshells. The eyes held no iris or pupil. The creature opened its mouth, and a trilling sound emerged, almost like birdsong. Dar saw the orange-spotted crystal held aloft before the creature, a shimmering white sphere enclosing it. The crystal was held in the air by nothing. Septim rose as the creature kept itself turned from him, but as he attempted to reach forward, he halted suddenly. A barrier, Dar realized, and he looked around. There, on the grass beside Septim, was the long black crystal. It was in two pieces, one side cracked and torn like nails had been scraped across it. His sword, he realized, and started. The reason he hadn't done too much damage to Septim was due to the crystal. His chest panged at the realization. He had come so close to unwittingly murdering the man before him.

The spotted crystal pulled his attention back as a loud crack split the air. The barrier around the crystal twisted, reformed, and splintered, until finally the crystal was in pieces. A shadow tore itself from within the barrier, and as Dar watched, it threw itself past him and disappeared. Once again, Dar thought of Tao. Hopefully, the demon was intent only on leaving and would leave Tao in peace.

“No!” Septim shouted. The man turned away. The demon floating before him reached out one hand, the translucent curtain somehow covering the sight of her body, leaving only the very tips of her fingers to reach toward Septim. As something curled around those tiny digits, Septim pulled out a new gem, this one yellow-orange and shining brighter than the two previous stones he'd owned, and he dodged right as the demon flung the barrier out. It missed him, and he kept running. The demon beside Dar trilled in anger.

“Lerilel!” Cururpira shouted, and the demon turned to her. Dar did, as well, and saw a fierceness in her gaze he hadn't seen before. “You hold no rights within this realm. Either release me or be gone from here.”

Lerilel turned her gaze on Dar, and Curupira hissed once more. Lerilel trilled softly. A soft voice, like a lover's whisper, caressed his mind. _It is well_ , Dar heard, and he started, just a bit. He turned his gaze to see Septim watching, just far enough to be safe, just close enough to still see Dar. He turned back to the barrier demon, knowing she wouldn't allow Septim to come close. _He cannot understand me, anyway._ Dar frowned at that.

The demon turned her large eyes on Dar, and though there was nothing to show where she looked, he knew her entire focus was on him. “Thank you,” he said, referencing the breaking of the blind demon's cage. Without it, he might have remained blind for a very long time. The demon tilted her head, just enough to send her white hair streaming through the air as if floating in the water. She opened that bloodless mouth of hers and called out in that odd, cat-like birdsong. The wind blew like a gale once more. “Wait!” he said, shouting to be heard over the wind. The demon tilted her head again. “Is it possible for you to release Curupira?”

The tinkling sounded a bit different this time, like a disrupted call. Was it laughter? _No. The barrier exists to let her breathe. If I were to release her, she would drown_.

Dar frowned again at that and looked to Curupira. So he'd come all this way, and Curupira was still to be left stranded? Alone? His fists clenched. “There must be something.”

_Perhaps. Someday._

The gale blew, scattering the leaves around the clearing, pulling Dar's hair into his eyes. The demon's flowing garments curled like a cocoon around her form, and then she was gone. His gaze wandered once more to Curupira/ He tried to convey to her how sorry he was. But Curupira just thrust out her chin. “Just keep your promise to me. Take care of my animals, Beastmaster.”

“I will. Of course,” he said. But he thought of how the animals had refused to speak to him, and he had to ask. “Why would the animals not talk to me?”

She twisted her head. “Have you failed them?”

He thought about it. He hadn't left his castle since he'd walked through the mist about four moon cycles ago. Had the animals seen it as an abandonment? But he'd been settling the kingdom, creating laws to help protect them. And Ruh would have made it plain to him if he'd been failing them, wouldn't he? “I don't know,” he said finally.

Her eyes narrowed. “If you've failed them, then you've failed me.” Dar pulled his shoulders back. Curupira’s anger flickered for a moment. “Or has it only just begun?”

Dar nodded. “On my way here.”

Curupira seemed mollified at that. “Then they would have tried to keep you away. They knew your appearance here would put you in danger.”

“But my job is to protect them. How can I if they keep silent?”

“They will call you for help, Beastmaster, but not to your death.” She glared at him. “My animals would never seek such a thing. Perhaps you have lost their trust, and they do not accept your power. Perhaps you are weak. Or,” she said, before Dar could even begin on that one, “they understand what Septim is, and they fear what he could mean for you.”

The words reminded Dar, and he turned his gaze on Septim once more. The man still hung back. He looked ready to run.

Tao came stumbling out of the branches of the trees, a number of paces from Dar and only a few from Septim, and Septim's steely gaze turned on him.

Dar's sword was in his hand before he could think. “Tao!” he shouted, and Tao froze at the sound of Dar's voice. He turned his gaze from Dar to Septim and backed away. Dar raced toward him.

That gaze raked over Tao. Dar saw it settle on Tao's lean frame, his thinner arms, his tousled hair, and he knew Septim saw that Tao wasn't a fighter. But as Dar ran forward, Tao straightened his spine and turned on Septim. “You're the one who erected the barrier,” he said, and Septim's gaze flew to Tao's face. “What do you want with Curupira?”

Septim's gaze shifted between Dar and Tao, and finally the man turned away, heading back into the forest. Dar came abreast of Tao and clasped his shoulder before he could chase the man down and demand answers. Dar's throat tightened. Despite himself, he thought of Tao struggling to stand, back in front of the Vella's home, and he grimaced. Tao had always attracted danger.

Tao watched Septim leave, then turned to Dar. “What about Curupira?”

Dar shook his head. Tao's face fell, and Dar wondered at it. Tao and Curupira had never gotten along. But of course Tao wouldn't want her trapped, if he could help it, and Tao understood how upset Dar would be about it. Dar tightened his hold on Tao's shoulder for an instant, a silent thank you, before he dropped his arm back to his side. “Come on. I'll explain everything once we meet up again with Arina.”

Tao grinned at the prospect of learning, then looked toward the river in which Curupira lay. He didn't go near it. “Is there anything that can be done?”

“Not today. But I'll be back,” Dar vowed. He turned, and together, the two of them left that part of the forest behind. Dar heard the forest close behind them and knew Iara was blocking the place off once again. Dar ground his teeth together and kept moving.

* * *

Arina met the two of them as they approached the village. Her hair was slightly tangled, her eyes wide enough to show that she was about two seconds from a murderous rampage. “Thank the ancestors,” she said as they came near, and she swung a not-too-gentle fist at Dar's arm. He winced. “That's for leaving me here with this lot! I was nearly run out of town! Iara started snarling and rumbling about the town,” she said, and then a young man came toward them, his chin high. “This boy and I were the only ones telling everyone to calm down.”

Dar and Tao turned to the kid, and Dar grinned. “We met before. You're the one who told me about the curse Iara placed on the men.”

The kid nodded and grinned. “And you're king now.”

Dar did his best to hide the ensuing need to fidget. “I am.” He kept his head high and stance tall. Perhaps he was getting used to being king. “Thank you for helping my friend.”

The kid shook his head. “Everyone's afraid of Iara, even though you're here. But she hasn't attacked us or anything. She just seems angry about something.”

Dar didn't mention how even the boy looked afraid, because a man's courage should not be mocked. “She's probably gotten a report back from her guards at her makeshift prison. I'll go speak with her.”

The kid nodded. Though he didn't droop his shoulders, he did sigh, one small, nearly silent exhalation. Then he led Dar and Tao toward the village.

Dar understood immediately why Arina looked about ready to spit. The village was nearly torn down, belongings draped loose in baskets and carts filled to the brim with food and blankets and tools. A young man was trying to fit a chair on top of a table, and Dar shook his head. To be fair, he could understand why they were panicking – just past the village, pacing up and down with the water lapping darkly around her ankles, was Iara. The sea churned; the water seemed to boil, and all around the village, the sound of hissing echoed in the air.

Yet when Dar looked around again, the villagers were pausing in their actions. Each eye turned to him, and the young man lifting the chair stopped and let it fall to the ground. Most turned their gazes from Dar when he looked at them, and Dar felt something skitter down his spine as he realized they were ashamed. “You're king,” Tao said, nearly whispering as he leaned closer. “You promised to take care of them, and they still tried to run. It shows a lack of faith in you, and they know it. They most likely feel guilty – they should have known you wouldn't let them down.”

But Dar could only nod as everyone slowly started unpacking. Women carried the overflowing baskets into their huts, and men started taking down the carts. The bustle from before had stilled.

Arina stood beside him and sulked. “Fat lot of good leaving me behind did,” she groused. “Please tell me I didn't miss a fight.” She turned a sideways glance on Dar, then huffed and threw her hands in the air. “Of course I did.”

Dar grinned. “I'll leave the next one to you.”

“You'd better.”

Iara saw him then and came storming toward him, her small body nearly vibrating. Dar hurried to meet her before she could set the village in a blind panic again. “Iara.”

“Beastmaster! What was that? Who did that? Where is he? You let him go!” She stamped her foot before he could say so much as a word. “You let the human run! I should have known you wouldn't have the stomach to–”

“You knew he was responsible for everything?” Dar asked, and felt that same fury roiling in him as always. “You sent me in blind.”

“Of course I didn't know!” she said, and lightning-fast her body slowed, hunched in a bit, and she looked up at him from beneath her lashes. Tao made a disgusted sound from somewhere behind him, and he had to fight not to smile. “But you saw him, what he was doing to us, and you let him go!” And there she was, fuming once again. “All because he's human.”

“I didn't let him go,” Dar said, though it was only partly true; when he'd realized just how close he'd come to doing something horrific, he'd hesitated. He'd also let the man escape in his effort to keep Tao and Curupira safe. Without the barrier demon, Septim would most likely be unable to capture Iara; she was too cowardly to choose to go up against him, after all. But it didn't mean the man wouldn't be back. “I'll keep an eye out for him, Iara. Until then, you have your promise to keep.”

Her promise. She pulled her lips back at the mention of it. “I don't see why I should; you didn't take care of the problem.”

“That wasn't part of the deal,” Tao said, but Dar just looked at him. Tao silenced himself, but his lips pulled down in a frown.

“I went to find out what happened to your jailers. The issue of whether to bring Curupira to you has no place; she wasn't freed.”

Iara did seem to brighten up at that one, and she once again curled into Dar's personal space. “Yes,” she said, and her voice, while trying to sound seductive, was like a hiss. “You kept her there for me.”

Dar nearly had to bite his tongue on that one. “Iara.”

She huffed and slid away, pacing all over again. Her tiny body grew jerkier each time she turned. “Of course,” she said, and waved her hands a bit. Dar, however, was used to the mercurial moods of demons and simply watched. “Leave it to you to release the last of them,” she said, obviously now referring to Awun.

Dar had no intention of correcting her, but of course Tao did. “We didn't release him. He just showed up.”

She sent Tao a withering glare, but Tao simply came to stand abreast of Dar. “You know he's the god of death and destruction, right? That he comes from the birth of fire and heat and drags it to ice and dust?” She stopped moving to glare at Dar again, her eyes narrowed and her pupils slitted. “You want help on understanding him? Then understand that he is death. He is the quake in the ground and the lightning in the air. He is the scent of rotting flesh and the taste of ash. He loves destruction like you love life.” She sneered the word.

“How can we defeat him?” Dar asked, and Iara gave him her wide-eyed, half-smiling look.

“You can't! You can't defeat death, Dar!”

He backed away as she came to lean against him yet again. “There must be some way.”

She turned from him, flicking his words away like a gnat. “Of course there must,” she said, her voice dripping poison. “Because you're Dar, hero of all.”

“I am king.”

She turned at that, and he wondered if he made her afraid or aroused with that comment. “Then prepare to rule a dead kingdom, Dar.”

“Just give us somewhere to start,” Tao said, cutting in before things could get worse. “The man is after Dar.”

The words evoked the reaction Tao had expected. Iara's eyes grew wide, her lips parted, and she sent a completely different look Dar's way. “If you've caught Awun's attention, then your death is inevitable. Dar, you should come with me. Hide away under the water.” Dar was already shaking his head. Her lips stretched back into a snarl. “Fine, then! Die on your fool's errand to save this ridiculous planet!” She turned away again, only to turn back once more and stick her finger in his face. “There's an old chant, played by the winds and the waters and the vines. You humans wrote it down once. Probably destroyed by your dearly departed nemesis.”

Dar's lips thinned. Zad had destroyed countless old temples and untold knowledge. If it was lost, there would be nothing Dar could do.

“Where?” Tao asked, already clinging to hope, like always. He leaned forward slightly, even though it was Iara giving him the information.

“Ask her,” Iara said, and turned to point at Arina. “Awun's touch creates stains on the world. Even when life grows again, it's torn by death. Find such a place and begin your search. But I warn you, Beastmaster,” she said. Her eyes were almost pleading. “I will not stand in the way of that man. You shouldn't, either. Get out of his sight. Leave him alone.”

Dar sighed. “He'll destroy everything, Iara.”

Her face contorted, then smoothed, then contorted again. “You'll get yourself killed.”

He moved away from her. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

She raised her hands as if to claw his skin, but she didn't touch him. “He marks the flesh. He devours the soul. He rips the worlds asunder, all for the beauty of death. He'll tear this world in two.” She flipped it all away, then sent a short look to Arina, then Tao. Her gaze lingered. “He knows your weaknesses, Dar, and he'll use them. He'll destroy you before he kills you. That's what he loves. He loves to break things.”

It was a new threat, a new evil, and it made Dar's heart race. He, too, looked at Tao. But while he was worrying, Tao was already lost in thought. Arina, of course, simply lifted her chin and smirked.

Balcifer had never gone after anyone but Dar and his family. Zad, a few times, had gone after Tao, and Zad’s sister had gone to Ruh. Dar remembered each time, each threat on his friends' lives, and he shivered. Once more, he saw Tao stumbling out of the Vella cave. He thought of the way Awun had eyed Tao. He thought of the man's threats. “Why is he fixated on me?”

“You're light, Dar,” she said. “To Balcifer, you were the incarnation of that which he wished to destroy. Why would that be different with Awun?”

“You're fixing the world, Dar,” Tao said, his voice low. Quiet. Reverent. “You're creating it, all over again, after everything Zad did. Creation and destruction.”

Dar thought of Tao and remembered how Tao had helped him through loss, strife, fury, grief. Kyra's death and the loss of his gift – twice – and Zad's enmity, despite having been tortured at Zad's hand. He thought of Dartanus and his father's sword, and how he'd regained a family after all the years without. And he thought of how it had all shaped him, turned him into who he was. And yes, if Awun were to try to destroy him, then taking away that which he'd formed himself around would be the best place to start. “I have to stop him.”

“Of course you do,” Arina said, and Iara turned away again, throwing the sand and waves back, creating a circle of sand and rain that dropped like acid to the ground. She waded into the water as Arina snorted. “We'll take care of him. What's one more evil god?”

Iara turned to look back at Dar. The turn of her brows suggested there might have been tears if she'd been human. Slowly, she sank into the water.

It was nothing new for Iara to believe he would lose. Yet now he feared not loss, but the cost of victory.

He turned to Tao. “Come on,” he said softly. “We should go back to the Vella's home. They may know where we should start.”

Tao just hummed and followed behind Dar. Arina chuckled at the sight and stood to Dar's right. Dar thought of his family, waiting for him in the castle. Thought of Sendar, traveling somewhere, dealing with an unknown threat. He thought of the animals, keeping silent to protect him. Kodo and Podo, who had kept suspiciously silent throughout the day's events. Ruh. He closed his eyes and breathed deep. There was so much Awun could take away.

He had so much to lose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sadly, no, I did not bring back the second Sorceress. She seemed more the type to travel around in time, creating her own knowledge through her own experiences. So she will not be returning. Sorry.


	3. Return of the Mad King, Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that this chapter gets pretty dark. Also, I noticed that the entirety of the second episode was in Dar's POV. ...Oops.

“ _Beastmaster, you're a very dangerous man. But in my own way, so am I.”_

* * *

* * *

Dar paced back and forth as the Vella went about their duties. Some entered with baskets full of berries and herbs; others hurried from the hive, emptied baskets in tow. The Queen sat on her throne, watching Dar as a wasp might a spider, preparing a swift, piercing attack. “Sharak agreed to take word to my family in the castle,” Dar said, “but Sendar's still out there dealing with bandits.”

Tao had already heard it before and had insisted they leave. Dar's gut churned at the thought, and he couldn't put his finger on why. He and Tao had faced danger before, and Dar had always walked sure-footed through each entanglement. He comforted himself with the knowledge that he had never failed to protect those around him, but the words rang hollow. Tao had been in danger several times. This wasn't going to change. Any hope for peace for himself and his friends would have to be put on hold.

Arina was double-checking her daggers, searching for any dullness or nicks that she might have missed. She nearly bounced where she stood. She'd missed her chance for a battle a few days before, and she seemed more than ready to make up for that fact.

Tao looked almost torn, however, and that, more than anything, made Dar stop from jumping forward. “Maybe I should stay behind,” Tao said, and Dar nearly hurt to hear it. It made sense, of course; while Dar had traveled with Tao, Tao had found himself in more and more danger. Near the end, Tao had spent more and more time in Eirokan, leaving Dar to travel alone, joined only by his animal friends. But Tao had always assured him that he stayed behind to translate the runes, or to help build Eirokan along, or to prepare Dar for his journeys. It had never been about danger.

Even as Dar’s heart tripped, Tao said, “I could start searching for that temple, or could go through the Vella's files again. Now that I know something was written as a chant, I may be able to find something I'd overlooked before.”

Arina shook her head. “Remember, too, that she said Awun would be after all of us? He seemed particularly interested in you, Tao.”

Tao paled, seeming to remember, and Dar banished all fear from his mind. It wouldn't help him. It wouldn't help his friends. “For now,” Dar said, “it's best if we all stick together.”

“We can't protect everyone,” Tao said, but he was already standing to join them. “What about Eirokan? Xinca? Everyone in this kingdom is now under your protection, Dar. If Awun wanted to hurt you, he could attack anyone.”

It was true, and Dar knew Awun would likely use the innocent people under his protection against him at some point. But Dar said nothing, because as much as he loved everyone, there were those he loved more. “The sooner we get to Sendar, the sooner we can be sure of his safety. After that, we can start searching for information. All right?” He knew Tao would want to pour himself straight into research, but Tao seemed fine with Dar's decision.

The Vella queen simply waved them off when they went to say good-bye, and she spared Dar the smallest of smiles, her gaze studying as he turned away. Sharak called to him, angry to have been left out of the reunion with Curupira, and led him west, toward the Rakshi tribe, where Sendar would hopefully be cleaning up the mess with the bandits.

As he left, Ruh perked up and sidled close to him, also upset at having been left out of the search for Curupira. The tiger huffed at Dar, and Dar murmured a quiet apology. He hadn't wanted any of his animal friends near Iara, and his efforts to protect them had kept them from his side when he'd needed them. The lesson was one he'd do well to remember.

* * *

Tao watched Dar as they traveled the next few days. An unseasonably cool breeze drifted through the eaves a few short hours after they headed out. At first he feared it was a sign of Awun's influence, but there was nothing else to suggest the man's presence, and he finally realized that Awun would have left a trail of bodies.

So without having to worry about the chill or the ferrets – having been cooped up in the satchel while they were with Curupira and been unwilling to speak with Dar about Septim (for whatever reason), they'd become a bit slower, a bit less ornery, as if trying to apologize to Dar. And in wanting to appease Dar, they were giving Tao some much-needed space. It left him all the opportunity in the world to study his old friend.

When Iara had given them the information on Awun, it hadn't escaped Tao's notice how tense Dar had become. It was as if the news of Awun's evil had made Dar freeze.

Tao, of course, knew better. It wasn't the threat of Awun's evil, but Awun's intent that got to him. He was afraid for Arina and Tao and the animals. Tao knew the worry and guilt were churning inside Dar; it was obvious with every glance back at them, every sharp, ungraceful movement, every short stop as Dar strained his senses to check for danger. Dar had always faced danger to himself as if it was a natural price. Yet any danger that could have fallen on another was thwarted. Dar had taken on the knowledge of the location of the Crystal Ark in order to protect Tao. He'd taken on the succubus in order to protect Tao and Arina. He'd gone up against Callista for Ruh.

Now, Iara had told Dar that no matter what he tried, those around him would be the ones to suffer. Dar wasn't handling the news well. It was half the reason Tao had wanted to stay behind – if Dar confronted Awun, Tao would be safely ensconced with the Vella or far away in the Downs or Mydlands. But Awun could find him, or his lackey, Jabez, and as Arina said, it wouldn't be safe. Dar would most likely lose sleep worrying. Tao needed to stay by Dar's side, if only to comfort him with his presence.

The first night, Dar stared into the fire far past the length of his shift. Tao woke with every one of Dar's unsettled movements, watched as Dar sank into the dance of flames and ignored the bed of moss waiting behind him. The rats, wakened, no doubt, by the bitter wind, looked to Dar for a few moments, chittering faintly, before slinking over to Tao and curling around his body. He closed his eyes then, unwilling to have them tell on him to Dar.

The second night, Dar fell into an exhausted sleep, but he woke up with every flutter of leaves. His tension bled into Tao, waking him, as well, and finally into Arina, who took her pent-up aggression out on a bush the next morning, prompting another fit of sharpening the next evening.

The third night, Tao put an herb into Dar's drink to get him to sleep without interruption, and he waited until Dar fell asleep before sitting up and beckoning to Arina. Since Dar had always taken first watch, she'd apparently already figured out what he'd done. A smirk was playing about on her lips. “Good idea,” she said, before he could even speak.

“I can't keep it up. He'll know in the morning.” Tao tried not to think about how angry Dar might be about using herbs on him without his permission. “We have to find some way to calm him down before this gets any worse.”

Arina leaned back against the trunk of a tree and closed her eyes, fiddling lightly with a dagger. Tao wondered if he should practice with his, but let the idea fall. Arina was only doing it to keep her mind active, wary. In case they were attacked. “He'll bounce back,” she said, in reference to Tao's words. “Just give him some time.”

Tao frowned. “We're heading toward bandits in order to save Dar's brother – the one who tried to kill him, mind you – so we can get to him before the god of destruction can. And he's having trouble sleeping. Yeah, you're right. We should just wait.”

Arina sent him a sour look. “You know what I mean.”

“And you know I have a point.” The ferrets were enjoying Dar's still form, curling onto his stomach as he slept. Ruh looked at them from the clearing's edge and gave Tao a long look. “Don't give me that. You know I have a point, too. He needs to rest, or he'll be of no help to anyone.”

Sharak called to him, almost softly, and fluttered his wings. Tao hoped that meant he was on Tao's side. “Look, I'm not happy to have done it,” he said, and though he tried to not hunch his shoulders, he couldn't help it. “But Dar's worrying himself sick over something he can't do anything about. I don't know about any of you, but I have no intention of leaving Dar to fight this battle on his own, no matter how dangerous it is.”

Arina huffed only a short moment before Ruh. “So what you're saying is, you want to get him back on track.”

“Yes. Not worrying about us, just about Awun.”

She rolled her eyes. “That's not going to happen.”

Tao knew it, too. “Fine. Then at least him worrying about us _less_.”

Arina looked at Dar, his brow still slightly furrowed, even in induced sleep, and sighed. “You're right,” she said finally. “Of course you are.”

Tao wasn't thrilled to hear it. “So what do we do about it?”

Arina looked at Dar again, and her gaze softened. “Is there something we can do?”

Tao hung his head. “Wake me up when the moon is high,” he said, his chest tightening. The truth was that there was nothing he could do to help Dar. Not in this. He could show Dar the way, but he couldn't get him there.

* * *

Tao handed Dar a tea laced with herbs the moment he woke up. Dar gave him a short glare, but Tao caught his eyes and held it, and finally Dar dropped it and drank, letting the argument go. Tao was grateful.

They were only a few more hours away from the Rakshi home, and the breeze finally cleared into something warmer. The clouds that had sprinkled the sky were nearly gone, making way for the warmer weather. The trees shone in a rainbow of greens. Flowers opened their buds to the sky, filling the air with light, pastel scents. A few animals called out, though the morning had nearly gone by the time Dar awoke from his drugged sleep. Dar made no mention of it, though he shared his glare a couple of times with Arina, who looked supremely uninterested in his pouting, and finally said so. She lifted her chin, daring him to say it had been wrong of them. Dar kept his silence.

The tension was nearly bled out of them by the time they left the forest behind to meet a meadow, the grass overgrown as it went unchecked by trees. The tops of the houses of the Rakshi tribe could be seen, and Dar froze at the small wisps of smoke rising into the clear sky.

“Maybe they're cooking,” Tao said, his voice making it clear he didn't believe it for a second.

“Come on,” Dar said, and ran forward. His brother was supposed to have taken care of this dispute. Where was he? Had something happened to him? Bandits weren't supposed to be a problem. He didn't have much of an army – Dar didn't like the idea of wasting money on such things, and he didn't want to be known as a king who led with a sword, like Zad – but his army was skilled enough to handle bandits. Wasn't it? Even the worst could happen to the best.

The grass slowed them down and parted like the tide around their bodies, swaying like an ocean. Anyone looking for an enemy's approach might even hear them before they saw them.

But it became apparent rather quickly that whatever had happened in the town, it had happened a while ago. The smoke curled from roofs blackened by fire, the houses caving into themselves, the wood little more than cinders. Dar paused at the sight, but Tao charged past, calling out. “Is anyone there? Are there any survivors?”

But Dar could tell there were none. Not because the devastation was absolute, though it was, but because there were no bodies at all. Someone had cleaned the place up. If anyone had been killed, their bodies had been moved. If such work was done, what were the chances that the town hadn't been searched, ransacked? Dar hurried forward. There were also no signs of his brother or his men, no signs that anyone had been there at all, save the small plumes of smoke from tiny embers, starving on the edges of what used to be homes and benches and outdoor tables, where the Rakshi were known to eat as a whole family. All of it was slowly turning to ash.

“There's no one here,” Tao said, returning to Dar. Arina left Dar's side then, moving to search for clues. Dar looked, as well, and finally closed his eyes, calling to the sky. Ruh snorted through the ash, complaining of the smell. The ferrets squawked, demanding to be let out, and Dar let them go, hardly listening as they ran to the nearest burned-out house.

He called for the animals again, only to find they'd all run days ago. A few called back from far away, warning him to leave, telling him madness had come to their home. When he asked for more details, all they said was that it remained, a stain on the earth, a twist in the eye of the sky. He sighed and let it go. The animals were still afraid. Ruh snorted again, then shook his great head. He smelled something familiar.

“Dar,” Arina called, and Dar trotted through the blackened town. Wood fell apart beneath his feet, crumbled to dust as he passed. Tao was going in and out of houses, searching for something Dar didn't understand. Dar passed him and caught up with Arina.

Dar saw what she had immediately. On the ground, parting the ash and embers, were several drag marks. This was where the bodies had been taken, and Dar took a moment to grieve the loss of life. But it seemed as if some of the bodies had still had enough life in them to fight against the drag, and here Dar found hope. The bandits hadn't killed everyone. Dar hadn't let a tribe fall into extinction. “There are a few left alive,” Dar said, and Arina nodded.

Beyond the meadow were the bases of mountains, about half a day's travel away. Among those large rocks would be caves, even simply formations that could hide a camp. The bandits may have ridden the tributaries in, but they were almost certainly keeping themselves ensconced in the rocks.

Arina started forward, and Dar called the animals over. Kodo and Podo both came immediately, upset about the lack of food and nearly gray from ash. Ruh shook his head and came, as well; a bit of ash coated his nose and cheeks and crawled up his paws, but he was otherwise pristine.

The worst was Tao, when Dar called him over; it was evident that Tao had crawled around the ash looking for something, because his face and hair and arms and tunic were all nearly black. Still, his teeth broke the darkness, and he held something up. “A blade,” he said, and held it up. It was similar to Arina's, metal and curved. Dar made a short sound of surprise.

“The Nords?” Arina said. “You think the bandits are the few remaining Nords?”

Tao shrugged. “Could be. Or it could be the remnants of Zad's old fighting crew. Remember? Zad used them, then threw those who didn't want him to rule away. They watched me make the weapons.” His smile dimmed a bit at that, and Dar knew he remembered the price of his curiosity that day. It hadn't been Tao's fault, but it was a price, nonetheless. “In any case, we at least have an idea of what we may be up against.”

It was more than his brother had known at the start, and Dar feared for that. Still, he nodded and pointed to the tracks – obvious even to Tao. “They've most likely taken everyone to the base of the mountains,” he said, and pointed out to the rocks, far in the distance, hemmed in on the left by the encroaching waters of the sea. “If anyone's still alive, they'll be there.”

Tao nodded. Arina led the way, of course, nearly sprinting from the broken homes and into the grass once again. Around the town, the grass was little more than a finger tall, burnt to nothing by the fires. But beyond them the grass came to their knees, and Arina ducked down a bit more, until the grass touched the top of her thighs. Dar did the same, and Tao finally tried, as well, and nearly fell on his face for his trouble. Dar snorted.

Even though the distance was rather short, their hunched positions made it take longer than it normally would. The sun was orange in the sky, only another length or so from touching the horizon, when they finally found the first few boulders breaking the endless sea of grass. They were small, small enough that Tao more often than not found them by banging his shin against them. Ruh stalked forward, natural, in his element, and Dar stopped Arina and Tao to let him lead. Ruh reported that familiar scent again, stronger now. He reported it as an annoying human, one they'd fought before, along with several others he didn't recognize.

“Can you find the human?”

In answer, Ruh moved further ahead, quickly disappearing in the thick grass.

“Dar?” Arina asked. She looked antsy, one hand flipping a dagger back and forth over and around her fingers. Her gaze scanned the rocks beyond them, where the grass was finally defeated by the rock bed. They caught on a small cave, then again on a thick grouping of rock, each taller than a man.

“Ruh senses someone he knows,” Dar said, his voice little more than a breath. “He says we've faced him before.”

“Who?”

“Someone who had him put in a cage.” Dar frowned. Almost, he thought of Baha, but Curupira had taken care of him. Then he thought of Zad, but of course that couldn't be right. The Umpatra warrior was dead. Callista was dead.

It hit him just as Ruh roared in warning. Footsteps pounded against stone, coming from all directions, around the rocks. Though Dar couldn't see anyone yet, Sharak gave him a visual. The men were dressed like bandits, certainly, but they didn't move like them. There was a sort of formation happening, a pincer move that brought men in raggedy clothing around both sides to cut off Dar's escape. Tao hunched lower in the grass as men poured over the rocks and through the crevices, and Arina stood. “I recognize this move,” she said, and her words confirmed it.

Slow footsteps exited the cave as the men swarmed around them, forcing Tao to stand straight and put his chin up. Arina snarled, actually snarled as the white cape swished around the man's feet. He exited with his usual casual aplomb, his men making way for him as he drew closer. “Beastmaster.” He turned his gaze. “Arina.”

Her lip curled. “Voden.”

He looked almost pleased with her anger, but his gaze strayed back to Dar. “It's been a long while, Beastmaster.”

“Zad defeated you,” Dar said. His gaze took in the men, the poor clothing, the somehow impeccable look of the man before him. The last he'd seen, Voden was being torn from his throne by Zad and the elephants he'd taken captive.

Voden made a show of looking around, then raised his hands. “And yet here I am, alive and whole, while he has crumbled to dust.”

“Only because you ran,” Tao said, piping up from behind Dar, insufferably brave. Voden's glacial eyes turned on him for an instant. Tao stood his ground.

“I had been defeated. It was a novel concept. One I did not care to repeat.” He raised his head. “I was felled by treachery, Beastmaster. My own man, the most trusted, turned on me.”

“You led by fear.”

His words didn't anger Voden. Instead, the man actually nodded. “Yes. I saw the mistake in that. I should lead by respect, shouldn't I. The way you do. You keep your friends, Beastmaster. It's an admirable quality in a leader. But to be able to even sway others to your side.” His gaze flickered to Arina again. “Well, that's even more impressive.” Voden clapped his hands together, and Dar saw large rings on each hand, each holding a different colored jewel, making his hands glitter like the setting sun. “Don't worry, Beastmaster. I hold no grudge against you for it.”

Dar didn't believe it, but Voden didn't seem interested in continuing the conversation. He turned to one of his men. “Raidarch, do you think you can handle him?”

Raidarch glared at him with a dark brown gaze, a scar cutting the very corner of his left eye. “Alone, I would fail,” he said finally, and the words made Dar hesitate. He wasn't used to his enemies recognizing his skill.

Voden leaned forward, making his cape scrape against the man's leg, until his lips were nearly on his ear. “You won't be alone,” he murmured, and patted the man's shoulder. Fire rose from his left hand and rolled around Raidarch's sword.

Tao gasped.

Ruh roared and ran forward, forcing the men around Raidarch to turn from Dar and scuttle from Ruh's claws. Sharak cried out.

Dar jumped back as Raidarch attacked. He pulled his sword free, having to dodge a second swing, and watched as Voden exited the battlefield, passing the cave and continuing left. The outcroppings jutted around his form, making him seem like a fog or rolling mist, before he could no longer be seen.

Raidarch lurched away as Arina charged forward, slicing across the man's navel. Dar swung his sword, ready to assist, only to have it change in his hands. He looked at his staff with his mouth agape.

Then Ruh roared again, making the men yelp and leap backwards, nearly on top of one another, and finally Dar listened to Ruh's words as they snapped in his mind.

 _The one who killed Beastmaster's_ _mate –_ _Beastmaster's partner._ The words tumbled together, coalescing _finally in a quick, fool! He has your partner!_

Dar jumped, his breath stealing through his teeth, and he turned around.

Tao was no longer behind him.

* * *

Tao tried again to kick out against the legs tugging him away from the battlefield. He'd hardly gotten a look at the scar curling around the man's cheek and from his lip, but he'd recognized him immediately. It made no sense. Qord was supposed to be dead.

So many people, as if the ghosts of their past were returning, and finally Tao thought there might have actually been more to the cold weather than he'd believed. Awun had to be a part of this. Hadn't he?

One of Qord's hands was over his mouth, keeping him from warning Dar, the other around his middle, curled so quickly around him that he'd been unable to get his arms out of the way. They were pinned to his sides.

He tried again to kick out, but doing it backwards was a bit counter-intuitive, and he finally gave up and tried to trip the man. He was shaken for his trouble, and some sibilant murmur was hissed in his ear. The words were extraneous – what mattered was the tone. And the tone promised death.

Tao strained his ears, but the sounds of battle were before him, diffusing with distance. No one was shouting his name. So everyone was still fighting and couldn't afford to search for him. But why would they? Tao wasn't a fighter, even now, but he was strong enough to hold his own. Unless someone came up behind him, neatly chopping his wrist until his dagger fell from his grasp. And then Qord had come, and just like that, Tao was taken. Not so different then from all those years ago, when he'd first met Dar. Maybe thinking he could hold his own was a bit of an overestimation.

They passed the cave Voden had come out of, and Tao saw Voden slithering around the rocks to join them. Voden looked on Tao then and smiled. “Tao, right? I remember you. You helped my mother and brother run from me.”

Ice skittered down Tao's spine. Qord and Voden. And he was at the dubious mercy of both.

“Hurry up,” Voden ordered, and Qord dragged Tao faster, leaving Tao to scrabble along the rocks, unable to get a foothold to slow them down. When the sound of his boots against the ground got old, Qord lifted him and carried him as if he were a sack. Voden watched it all with wide eyes, nearly unblinking.

They came upon another cave, this one nearly hidden behind rocks, and Tao was glad, because they would think the place hidden and forget that Ruh had an excellent sense of smell.

And then Voden looked up, rather expectantly, and Tao saw Sharak sailing above them. His heart gripped tightly in his chest. He heard a small chittering noise. His heart plummeted. Kodo and Podo. They and Sharak had all followed him, and Voden had expected it. Qord pulled him into the cave, scraping Tao's shoulder against the stone. Tao tried to thrust himself forward, but Qord snapped his head back with the hand over his mouth. A pain slid from his neck to his head and down through his back, and he barely managed to scrape a boot down Qord's leg, making the man hiss again, before he was inside the cave. The temperature seemed to drop several notches.

Then Voden held out his hands, and that odd light stretched out, from the brown stone this time – picture jasper – and swirled around Voden's fingers, making the whole hand seem to shine, just as it has when he'd used the red agate outside, and the rocks outside scraped and moved. Tao stared with wide eyes as the outcroppings moved like an advancing army, two, three of them, until they closed off the tiny entrance to the cave. The cave had once been wide open, but now was nearly hidden.

The cave was deeply dark now and somehow even colder, only a few cracks of light shimmering through the rocks. Voden held up his hand, and the red agate glowed again, creating a small ball of fire in the air. Qord lowered the grip of the hand over his mouth to keep his hands against his body, and he wondered if Voden would burn him alive.

But Qord just hefted him up again and followed after Voden as he made his way down the hall of the cave. The light made the walls seem to shrink and expand with every flicker. The cave split, one side opening into a wide cavern, the ceiling low and curved. Water dripped on one far side, building a small garden of stalactites. Several men nodded to Voden as he passed into the left corridor. Tao saw someone in chains on the ground, unconscious, and recognized Sendar. He leaned forward, hoping to see proof the man still lived. He wondered where the rest of the men were.

He soon found out; several more rocks hid a thin, low-hanging portion of the left hall so that men were trapped behind teeth. They each silently watched Qord dragging Tao, their eyes narrowed. They, too, were tied up, but in ropes, thick ones most likely used on the boats Voden had come over on. It seemed to be Voden's favorite way of entering someone's kingdom.

The cavern got thin, thin enough for Qord to have to step back a bit to give Voden and his swishing cape room to move. Tao took in the nearly-damp walls and wondered how close to the sea they were. The mountains spread from near the water's edge to the other edge of the meadow, until it linked to the edge of the forest about two days' hard travel away. Tao estimated the sea to be only about a short sun's edge from them, and wondered if the cave opened into a sheer cliff. The dampness said the water traveled nearby, or perhaps even flooded the walkway at high tide.

Finally the walls spread again, allowing them into a fairly small room. It was clearly Voden's chambers, with a large mat covered in thick furs and a few chests, most obviously of things plundered from the village. Tao worried about the villagers; he hadn't seen any amongst the soldiers.

Then he saw the thin rock, like a pole, against the right wall, and the chains that had been wrapped around it. And he knew exactly where this was going. He struggled anew, nearly tipping Qord back onto the ground, but Qord caught himself and snarled again. Tao felt the man's limbs starting to shake and pressed his slim advantage, squirming like mad. “Why are you doing this?” he finally asked, though he wouldn't be surprised if Voden simply chuckled and made some pithy retort about Tao having tortured his heart or something.

Voden simply flicked his fingers as if waving away an errant fly and pointed to the chains. “Do get on with it, will you?” And he went to one of the chests.

Qord made a growling sound in his throat, clearly not pleased with the imperious command, and Tao thought to press that advantage, too, until Qord slammed him into the wall. The damp wall was still hard, if wet. His cheek scraped against the rough surface.

Qord grabbed his wrists and yanked them over his head as he fought to find his balance. With one hand, Qord braceleted his wrists, and with the other, he unwound the chains from the rock. Tao pulled against his hold, then tried to kick him again. He was shoved into the wall again for his trouble. This time the stone scraped against his back.

“You know Dar will find a way inside,” he said, and thought of Kodo and Podo. Could they fit through those small cracks between the rocks? But even if they couldn't, there was sure to be another entrance. Along the sheer rock of the cliff, slippery from water and worn down over time, over a most likely deadly drop into water that may or may not be pockmarked with rocks? Tao no longer liked the idea of Dar using a second entrance.

“Through the rocks?” Voden said, and grinned at the concept. “He is strong, but is he that strong?” His icy eyes looked Tao up and down as Qord clicked one cuff of the chain around Tao's right wrist. He held Tao's left with much more ease and clicked the second cuff on in a fraction of the time it had taken the first. Then he stood away, granting him the full sight of Voden rising from his place beside a chest. He held something in his hand. Tao frowned, trying to place it. It looked like a bone, yet there were swirls in it. He'd seen the likes of it before, he could swear it.

Voden held it up. “Like it?” he asked, and twisted it, letting it gleam in the firelight still glowing in his other hand. He held the fire to a torch on the wall and let it go as the torch lit up the room. Tao eyed the thing. “It's a gift from Qord, a way of appeasing me.” Voden sent a fond, if narrow-eyed, look to the scarred man. Qord tilted his head. “He took it from the ruins of Zad's lost empire.”

Zad. Zad? Tao looked at the bone again. A horn, he decided. A straight horn.

 _Oh._ Oh.

“An interesting piece. I hadn't believed him at first, of course. How could Zad have something so beautiful when he was so ugly?” The unicorn's horn glinted dully orange in the light. “And he let himself die.” Voden shook his head, his eyebrows raised. “What a barbarian,” he said, and moved over to Tao. “Now.” He held out the horn, let it play across Tao's cheek. He held his breath. “I have some questions for you. I do hope you have more answers than the others. I'm getting tired of letting people live, and I do owe you.”

Tao took a deep, shallow breath as Voden let the horn slip away from his skin. “Now. First, I want you to explain these.” He held up his fingers, showing off his rings. They were makeshift, Tao realized, as if Voden had needed them created quickly. Thin wire held two around his knuckles, most likely tied simply to keep the stone on his finger.

“They're shiny stones,” Tao said, and hardly had time to see the movement before the horn sank into his gut. Tao let out a garbled cry, pain lancing through him. The horn was taken out, and Tao felt his blood pour from the wound. He coughed, and his whole body shuddered.

“A better answer will do,” Voden said lightly, cleanly avoiding the puddle of blood. His white cloak was still pristine, and Tao finally got the point of it – no blood, no dirt, no tears. The indomitable leader. “Explain the fire and water and thunder.”

Water and thunder, as well? “How do you not know? You know how to use them.”

“Yes, but the message is faded, and the person who read it to me couldn't be fully trusted to be telling me everything.” He played with the horn, now bloody, in a way that told Tao exactly how Voden had gotten the information he so far had. “But then I thought, who do I know with such knowledge?” Tao tried to focus on his words, wanting to gain as much information as possible, but the world was turning black. Pain throbbed from his wound, and he could feel blood bubbling at the back of his throat. He hung limply off the chains. “And of course I thought of you. A bit early to return, I thought, but the answers are worth it.” And Voden finally turned the horn on its side and fixed Tao's wound closed. The pain echoed in his body, and the blood still coated his tongue, but the pain was only a memory now, a reflex.

“There. Now.” He tapped the horn against his palm, letting the slick splat of blood against skin echo in the small chamber. “An answer, please.”

Tao shook his head. “I don't know.” At Voden's unimpressed look, he said, “we only recently found someone who can do the same. We've been trying to figure out how it works ourselves.”

Voden still didn't look convinced, and he nodded to Qord. “You've wanted to say hello to the Beastmaster's… friend, haven't you?”

Qord grinned. “I have,” he said, the first words Tao had heard him speak yet. The man looked Tao up and down as well, but the look was completely different than Voden's. While the young king's had been intent, studying, Qord's were nearly hungry. “I owe the Beastmaster.”

Tao's fear ratcheted up a notch. While Voden wanted information, Qord just wanted revenge. “I honestly don't know,” he said, wondering what was safe to tell. “The man we met, he used a stone to create fire, too.” He wondered if it was red agate, too, but Dar didn't know gems like Tao did. “He – we thought he got his power from the Lord of Destruction.”

Voden held up his hand, halting Qord. The man scowled at the interruption. He walked toward Tao, once again sidestepping the pool of blood. “The Lord of Destruction? Tell me more.”

Tao worked his throat. “Awun,” he said at last. “It's said he's a member of the Triad.” He prayed this bought enough time for Dar to figure something out.

* * *

Dar knocked the last to the ground, breathing heavily and thankful he'd gotten his staff back, though he couldn't say how. He swirled the staff, almost startled when it changed back into his sword. He looked at it for a moment, but he couldn't see any reason for it to change now. Dar had believed its permanent change to sword meant he'd taken his place as king. Now it was changing back, and he worried if that meant he was no longer working as a king should.

Then he turned to where Voden had disappeared. Ruh was already hurrying forward. Sharak called to him, warning him before showing him an area with a bunch of rocks crammed against the side of a mountain. Dar frowned at the sight, and Sharak dipped closer, until Dar could see the outline of a cave. Sharak cried out again. Magic.

He raced forward, letting his instincts guide the way. Arina called his name, then followed him. “Where's Tao?”

“Taken,” he said, and a sound slipped her lips. Dar couldn't tell if it was one of distress or fury. He didn't waste the second trying to figure it out. He leaped over shorter boulders, skirted around a group nearly high enough to be miniature mountains themselves, and finally saw Sharak keeping himself aloft around the next bend in the mountain's base hills. And then he could see the rocks, like sentry, standing guard over the entrance to the cave. Kodo and Podo raced up to him, chattering one overtop the other, shouting about moving rocks and Tao trying to get away and Kyra's killer.

Dar's breath stuttered out at the second confirmation, but he couldn't let himself think about Qord and Tao alone together somewhere with only Voden as a buffer. He couldn't let himself remember Kyra going lax in his grip, because if he did, if he let himself imagine Tao doing the same, he would break, and he couldn't.

The stones blocked the entrance completely, so thoroughly Podo couldn't get all the way through; her head nearly got stuck between two rocks. She squeaked in alarm until Dar carefully pulled her free.

“No way through,” Arina said, her voice tight. Sharak hurried around to try to find another entrance before Dar even asked. Ruh paced outside the rocks, angry that he hadn't been able to get to Qord before it was too late.

But Dar was angrier, because he hadn't even noticed.

“We'll find a way,” he said, and touched the rocks, trying to find a weakness, a thinner area he might be able to tear down. Arina began doing the same, digging her dagger into the cracks in the rock. Dar took out his sword and banged the hilt into the rocks. The sound had to echo through the cave, but no one bothered to race forward. And why would they? Dar smashed the hilt against a crack hard enough to loosen a small cascade of dirt. Nothing broke loose. “Ruh,” he said, but Ruh was already ahead of him.

Dar pulled Arina out of the way, and Ruh reared up onto his haunches and tore his claws down the rocks. One at the top shuddered, and when Ruh landed, Arina raced forward and attacked the weakness with her dagger, then again, stabbing at it like it was flesh. Finally the rock fell. It was small, only about as big as Dar's fists clasped together, but it was enough for Podo and then Kodo to race through. “Look for another way in for us,” Dar said to them, and then he and Arina moved away again as Ruh repeated his assault. Dar's heart hammered in his chest as he watched Ruh crash into the makeshift wall again and again. He hoped Tao was well enough to hear that Dar was on his way.

* * *

Voden was looking decidedly less interested by the minute, and Tao had little else to add to make it more interesting. Jabez's subservience, Awun's interest in death for death's sake, and Awun's history were already spoken of, and Tao had no intention of telling Voden of Awun's interest in Dar or the fact that he took Balcifer.

Finally Voden waved Tao's dwindling words away. “So he's a god.”

Tao nodded.

“And he has already shown himself.” Voden's eyebrow rose at that.

That was not a point Tao thought Voden would get stuck on. “Yes. He wore yellow.” _That_ was a point that stuck.

Voden narrowed his eyes. “My former interactions with others assured me that the Lord of Destruction was a legend.”

“He was. But so was Balcifer, once.” Tao saw the flash of madness in Voden's eyes, something he was unsurprised to find but less than thrilled to see. “Perhaps you were chosen by him,” he said, trying to curb the madness.

Voden shook his head and stepped away, and Qord came forward, grinning. Tao tensed. “I was chosen by no one. I create my own power.” He held out his hands, letting the turquoise glow until the condensation on the walls swirled forward and formed a small ball above his pale hand. Voden watched it dance for only a short moment before dropping it. It splashed on the rocky floor. “If anyone is to destroy this land, it is me.”

He walked off. “If he begins talking again, call for me.” He paused. “And ask about the Beastmaster. I hear he's king now.” Then he left. His cape swirled behind him.

Qord grinned down at him as Voden disappeared from sight. Tao tried to summon a glare, but it only lasted as long as it took Qord to reach out to Tao. He flinched despite himself. Qord chuckled. He touched Tao's chin, a small caress, before he turned away. Tao trembled, and the chains clattered. “I should thank whoever saved me from that snake's bite,” he said. “I thought my life was over. Chased by both the forest and Zad. But I was sent off to heal on my own, and I survived. Whoever put me on that boat saved me, the fool.” He knelt before the chest and opened it. This time Tao got a short glimpse inside, and he paled. He recognized the whip and what looked to be some sort of short, soft paddle. He'd seen Zad use one on his horse. The rest was unknown to him, and that, more than anything, curled the cold fingers of dread around his chest.

“Someone saved you,” he gasped out, trying to pull Qord into talking more. He hadn't missed how Voden had walked off with the unicorn horn.

“Whether they meant to give me some sort of funeral or simply wanted me gone, yes.” He stood then, holding out a chain with thorn-like spikes around it. Qord handled it gently enough to tell Tao just how sharp those spikes were. The chain was long.

Qord had survived. How? Tao knew the bite of that snake. It killed with even a glancing blow, let alone the deep sink of fangs Qord had suffered. No matter how the body was disposed of, it should have been a corpse.

Qord touched the chain to Tao's chest, and he flinched back. The spikes left scrapes, little pink lines that tore thin bubbles of blood to the surface. His breath hitched. They'd barely touched him.

Qord laughed. “Struggle if you want.”

If Tao struggled, the result would be even worse. He wouldn't escape it, not trapped as he was against the rock. He forced himself to stay still. His breath came in gasps as Qord stepped forward, the chain held before him. Tao watched, stone still, as Qord touched it to his chest, just a couple of inches below his collarbone. The thorns dug in immediately, cutting into his flesh, sending sharp little jolts through his system. Qord carefully wrapped it around his back, letting the thorns cut into Tao's shoulder blades, testing the sharp ridge of bone. Tao's jagged breaths cut the thorns deeper into his flesh, some of them jumping from one place on his skin to another, digging in anew. He winced at it.

Then Qord wrapped the chain back around to Tao's front and yanked. The spikes dug in deep, a thousand stab wounds, and Tao arced his body, not knowing where to turn to escape the pain, and cried out. Qord chuckled and wrapped the chains around his stomach, once again mockingly gentle before pulling tight. Tao keened then, and Qord wrapped it around him one more time, around the small of his back, before he finally ran out of chain. He pulled the edges of the chain tight and knotted them together, holding them in place as he stepped away.

Every breath tore the spikes deeper, until Tao could hardly breathe for the pain. He felt his blood streaming in small rivers down his body, coating his shirt, staining the top of his breeches. His arms shook as his strength gave out. He sagged in the chains. He tried to inhale, only to feel the chains pull taut. The spikes slipped a bit deeper inside him. He groaned.

“Well? Tell us how to use the stones.”

Tao shook his head. “I don't know,” he whispered. He looked up, and even that small movement pulled the spikes until he wondered if they would open him up like a knife carving open a fish, just pulling long lines until he looked like a piece of horror art. Qord seemed to want that to happen; his gaze traced the rivulets of blood as they trekked their paths across his skin. “I don't,” he said again, a bit stronger this time. “I told you, we've been trying to figure it out. Each seems to have some sort of property, and maybe only certain people can use it, but that's all…” Tao trailed off as Qord's face contorted.

“Only certain people?”

Oh. Oh. He was intimating that there was a power Qord couldn't achieve. “Maybe. We don't know.”

Qord seemed appeased with this, and suddenly less interested in demanding answers. Tao thought that might be a good thing – until Qord went back to the chest. Oh. Tao's breath hitched despite himself, and he gasped as the spikes drilled into him. The air choked in his lungs as he tried to escape the pain.

“If you know nothing about the jewels, I suppose I'll just have to ask you about the Beastmaster.” Tao looked up and struggled to make sense of what he was seeing. Qord was smiling, but his eyes were narrowed. Calculating. Tao wrapped his fingers around the cuffs chaining him, even as the movement made the thorns in his chest curl. When Qord stood, he was holding the riding crop. “So, how did he become king?”

“He was meant to be king,” Tao said, his every word making his chest heave. His stomach quivered. “It's his destiny. And he will be great.”

Qord gripped Tao's jaw and wrenched it up. The movement pulled on every last one of his wounds, and he coughed up a hoarse cry as they pulled and tugged within their holes. He felt the rivers of blood flow more freely. “Such defiance, for such a whelp,” Qord said, and lifted Tao a hair higher. The hoarse cry dragged itself from his lips, unstopping. “How about we try this again?”

Qord dropped him, a movement even worse than lifting him, as the sudden fall finally wrenched the spikes in his chest enough to cut small lines up. The blood nearly spurted now. The pain was too great for him to cry out. All he could do was gasp. “Tell me how he came to power. Tell me where his throne is. Tell me how he killed Zad.”

Tao almost laughed. He was so thankful, in that moment, that Dar's father had planned everything out so carefully. He was thankful for the mist, which kept those like Qord from Dar's rightful throne. He was thankful for the sword of light, a sword that would only allow someone of goodness, like Dar, to wield it. He was even thankful to Balcifer for having gotten rid of Zad.

Qord decided he was taking too long to answer and swung the riding crop into Tao's side, in-between the chains. Tao screamed and bucked, and the spikes shivered in his wounds, and everything turned to bright spots and ringing silence. He slumped back in the chains, his entire body burning like fire, and had no strength to try to pick himself up. He gasped for breath, but that only made it worse. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes.

“Perhaps I should just use you as bait?” Qord said, looking at Tao again. “The Beastmaster is powerless if one of his friends is captured.”

Tao hissed his breath in through his teeth. “But it will make him your enemy forever.”

Qord laughed. “Really? Because killing his precious lover wasn't enough.”

Tao closed his eyes. That was a good point.

He heard the air whistle and opened his eyes just as Qord slapped the chains on his chest. The pain from the crop was absorbed by the chains, but they dug so deep inside him he thought they might be carving into bone. He screamed again. The world tilted and swirled. Tao thought he might throw up.

He heard a small chittering coming from behind Qord. He jerked in his restraints. Both he and Qord turned to the sound. There, in the entrance to the chamber, stood Kodo, sniffing the air, chirping madly at Qord.

Qord's face contorted. Tao tried to warn the little rat, but his voice choked in his throat. Every muscle in his chest spasmed. His lungs froze, and he had to fight suddenly to breathe. Qord dropped the riding crop and hurried forward as if to step on the little ferret. Kodo skittered away and raced through the hall. Qord let out a sound of unintelligible rage and chased after, finally shouting for Voden.

Ah. Tao sighed in relief and grinned, and after just another few moments, Podo slid around the edge of the chamber. He hurried to Tao's side, then stopped. “Hey,” he said. “Where's Dar?”

Podo just squeaked at him, and really, he should have known better. The ferret sniffed his leg, then hopped up. The extra weight made his weight shift slightly, and he whimpered. Podo froze. “There isn't anything you can do,” he said. “These will take more than a little chewing. Get Dar,” he said. He thought, but he couldn't come up with anything. His mind was a foggy haze. “Ropes,” he said, his mind tugging insistently at him. “Ropes,” he said again, then nearly cried in relief. “The soldiers,” he said. “Go to the soldiers. They're tied in ropes, not chains. Get them free. They'll cause a ruckus. See if they know a different way in or… or something.” He wondered if Dar's men would think to speak to Dar's animal friends. He hoped so. “I think there's another entrance somewhere, maybe by the…” He huffed in a breath. His words pulled at the cuts on his chest. His arms trembled under the strain of holding him up. “But I think it's dangerous. Water.”

Podo squeaked again and thankfully got off of him. The ferret kept staring at him, though, and that wouldn't do. Tao could hear a ruckus down the hall. “Hurry,” he said. “Before Kodo gets caught. Just know that there's probably an entrance, possibly small, or something – it lets water into the cave every once in a while. Maybe when storms come, pulling the waves inside?” He needn't focus on the particulars. He just needed to point the way. “Around the cliff face, by the water.” He coughed and clenched his hands tight as the movement jarred the spikes. He refused to cough again. “Tell Dar,” he managed, then gritted his teeth. “Now go!”

The shout made the world fuzz to black, but he saw Podo leave, and that was what mattered. He hissed in a breath, two, three, until finally he couldn't fight the pain anymore and fell into black.

* * *

Dar knew things were bad the instant Podo spoke to him, relaying Tao's message, and refused to tell him how Tao was.

According to Kodo, Voden was able to spit fire from his left hand, and he seemed to be enjoying the sport of trying to catch Kodo within the flames. Kodo had few places to run to now, though, as Tao had told Podo to get the soldiers free in order to cause a distraction. She had no choice but to run back to the room containing Tao as Podo scurried to the soldiers' sides.

The rest of Podo's message had been for him, and he sent Sharak the message to search for an entrance around the water's edge. He turned to Arina and beckoned her to follow him, urging Ruh to continue where he was. Ruh roared, his voice bouncing off the hidden inner walls of the cave. He hadn't yet been able to scrape any more of the rocks loose.

Arina stayed close to his side as he hurried around the mountain to the left, where the faintest scent of the sea could be picked up. “Please tell me you have something,” she said. Her voice was tight enough to bruise her throat.

“Maybe. Tao thinks there's another entrance by the water, high enough to avoid being constantly drenched, but low enough to still have water enter during the rains.”

Arina needed no more urging than that, and they nearly ran past the area. Dar was only slightly surprised when, just a few minutes into the run, the rocky outlining cleared to reveal a flat stretch of land. The rocks had been heavily condensed in the area before, and only now could Dar see that they'd been purposefully moved. The rocks were used to obscure the men, most likely to catch any who came near unawares – just as they had with Dar. With Tao.

The sun was starting to set, just barely sitting on the horizon, when Dar got his first glimpse of water. The scent of the sea was more powerful now, and Dar could see that the water stretched to a small island, then out to the horizon. Waves beat against the mountain's side, spitting drizzle over the land. The meadow dipped into a sheer drop on its edge, reminding Dar of the drop Jabez had taken and disappeared from. He walked to the edge and stared for a moment at the water below. There were no rocks, but the way the water beat at the earth made it clear falling could well mean drowning.

Sharak called out then, and Dar took a careful step back before allowing the eagle's vision to suffuse his own. Sharak had found the entrance, a small, flat piece that looked like Arina might be able to squeeze through, but Dar's muscles might prevent him. Nonetheless, he made to follow, and Arina strode in his footsteps. She didn't bother him, just looked from him to the edge to the mountain, her lips firming and brows lowering further with every glance. Her fingers danced on her hilt, tightening and loosening and tightening again, readying to either throw it or slash something, not knowing which to focus on and unable to do either.

Dar scoured the rocks ahead, though Sharak had shown him exactly where to go. He took in the small dips and ledges where he could safely climb up, but waited until the very last minute to start climbing, unwilling to lose time to the slower trail. So when the ledge started climbing up just a bit, the area was already a bit damp from the repeated rushing of the sea and the drop was a bit steeper. The mountain brushed straight into the sea, nothing but the edge of the meadow, just a corner of dirt, a place where even grass refused to grow, and the edge dipped enough to warn of unsure footing.

Arina wasted no time, understanding Dar's countenance as a sign that they needed to continue. She hurried up the slippery slope, no heed to the water gushing below, spraying them slightly with every wave, burning their ears with its rolling crashes. Dar hurried forward to check her footing, then waited as she clutched at the wall, dipping her fingers into crevices and testing the hold before hurrying on. Dar watched a few seconds longer, then clambered up behind her.

He called to Ruh, only to hear Ruh's frustration, and then Sharak was calling him again. He saw Kodo scurrying by the edge of the slim opening, and silently urged Arina to hurry. There was a tiny ledge jutting out beyond the opening, and Kodo skirted its edge, looking back behind her. Something within the cave flashed, and Kodo jumped back slightly. Kodo shouted for Dar.

Sharak let the vision go and Dar saw Kodo before him, huddling on the rock, one back paw slipping on the edge. “Arina,” he hissed, and she was scrabbling, the rocks here just a bit drier, just enough for her to hurry a bit more, the water breaking against the stones beneath them. Arina's leg slipped for a second, and Dar's heart tore into his throat, his mind flashing back to another time Arina had fallen into water, but she just used the lost momentum to pull herself up to the ledge, close enough to reach out her hand. Kodo wasted no time, hopping onto her hand and scampering her way down Arina’s arm to her shoulder. As soon as Dar came within range, Kodo returned to him, and Dar took a moment to put Kodo back in his pack. Kodo huddled inside, shivering, and told him that Podo had freed a few soldiers, and they were fighting some of Voden's men. But, Kodo warned, there were more scents than the number present, and there might be more around.

Dar couldn't worry about what may or may not be waiting back with Ruh. His focus was on what awaited him within, where Tao lay, hurt in some way he couldn't see, still alone save for a ferret and a few of his men.

 _Sendar,_ his mind whispered, but he couldn't let it wander any further. “Arina,” he said, “can you get in?”

Arina was poised at the entrance, her dagger out, her gaze focused on the crevice of the rock. Nothing more flashed, and after a moment, she grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up, and with one hand held herself up slightly as she took a quick peek. “There's no one,” Arina said, and with that, she pulled herself forward and splayed her upper body on the ledge floor.

Kodo squeaked at that, arguing that Voden had been just on the other side, and Dar's stomach knotted up. He knew where Voden would be headed. He watched, his body straining forward, as Arina shimmied herself underneath the edge of rock, her head and knife hand disappearing underneath. There were no shouts, no calls, no sounds of battle. She pulled herself forward a bit more, gaining more leverage, and then heaved herself the rest of the way through, her feet the last to vanish.

Dar wasted no time, hurrying after her, almost ready to tell her to go on without him, to find Tao before Voden took him away or, worse, killed him. But that was a thought Dar couldn't let himself think, and he tested his leeway in the crevice, even as a large wave tickled his boots as he hung on the short ledge. A few birds shouted to him, finally understanding the gravity of the situation and warning him whenever a wave neared. Their calls were soothing, and after a short time, Dar was able to wriggle his head into the crevice. It was a tight fit, and tighter when he pushed his shoulder and chest within. For a moment, he feared he would be trapped like Podo earlier, but he managed one arm through, and Arina grabbed his hand and tugged.

As Dar got further and further within and his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, he could see the dampness Tao had spoken of, giving the walls a slight, vaguely shimmering look. The space was narrow, and when Dar was free, he found that he had to bend slightly to keep from smacking his head on the ceiling. Arina's hair stuck to the top as it was. If it rained, the area would be nearly flooded. Each wave would rock against the ceiling.

Dar hurried Arina forward. It took only until they reached the end of the corridor to find that a few stalactites had been put in their way. Dar wanted to curse, but Arina touched his shoulder and pointed to the ceiling. Only two of the stalactites touched the ceiling. There was enough space between the two to climb through. Dar turned on his side and clutched the top of one of the stalactites and pulled himself up, straining his muscles, until there was just enough space to swing first one foot, then the other to the other side. He pushed off then and landed gracelessly on the other side, though he kept his balance. Then he turned away and traced the area while Arina pulled herself over.

The hall was wider, but not by much, only enough for one person to move comfortably. The ceiling sloped up slightly, however, and Dar was able to finally stand straight. “How does it look?” Arina asked, grunting as she fumbled her landing, same as he.

Dar nodded toward the sounds of the fighting. “There's the fight you've been looking for,” he said, giving her a slight grin. The hall continued, and one quick check with Podo told him it led to Tao. “I'll go to Tao.”

Arina was already squeezing past him, her body pressed to his for an instant before she was moving away. “Be careful,” she said as she she left, and Dar couldn't do more than repeat the sentiment before his legs were moving, carrying him toward Tao, his heart drumming hard in his throat.

* * *

Tao woke a few times, each only long enough for him to inhale and groan before passing out again. Most times he awoke to the sounds of fighting and could feel the slightest bit of satisfaction at the idea of the soldiers getting free. One time, he woke up to find Kodo running into the room and stepping on something, and the sound of rock grating on rock, then the sight of Voden chasing Kodo down an area that Tao had once thought was wall. Kodo had disappeared through the hole, and Voden had moved a rock back and to the side, taking after her with a snarl and a dancing flame in his hand.

The next time he woke, it was to a harsh slap on his cheek.

“Wake up. Qord, Laafi, bind him. We make for the temple.”

“We leave?” The voice was new, and as Tao blinked to try to make the world focus, he saw a third man, young, the hair on his bare chest fine enough to tell he was only just an adult. Beside him stood Qord, looking angry at it all.

“Yes. This man has friends who wish to take him back, and we can't afford to lose him. He will be able to tell us much more than any of the others we've retrieved.”

Retrieved. Captured and tortured, then most likely put to death.

Temple.

_The message was faded._

Temple.

_Oh._

The temple had to be the one Iara had mentioned. The 'message' – was it part of the chant? Did it hold some of the answers to defeating Awun? Tao listened a bit more then, begging them to give him a clue where it was or where he was going. They were silent as they moved, opening that dreaded chest and pulling out rope – oh, he thought a bit giddily, rope. That was good; the ferrets could chew through that.

Qord came to him grinning, dragging the rope along the floor, and Tao tensed despite himself. Qord's grin widened, and he reached up for the cuffs holding Tao up.

 _No._ No, he wanted to say, as he envisioned what would happen, but he couldn't find his voice, and it didn't matter in the next instant, as his hand fell to his side. The movement wrenched the spikes, though he couldn't find it in him to do more than flinch and whimper. Then his other wrist was freed, and he fell, unable to hold himself up. His chest slammed into the ground, and the chains dug in, dug in, and he finally found his voice in a scream. It was muffled by the floor, but the cave walls made it bounce, nonetheless.

Qord straddled his back and pulled his arms back. He screamed again as every wound throbbed at the tug. His arms were limp as Qord wrapped his wrists together. The rope sank into the small chafes in his wrists, but the pain was minor, only noticeable for how it differed from the pain of the spikes. The kid, Laafi, went to Tao's ankles and bound them, as well. It didn't hurt nearly as much.

“Leave the others,” Voden said. “Anyone strong enough to survive the battle will join us later.” Tao wondered if any of those men would be willing to tell Dar where Voden was heading. Laafi and Qord didn't bother responding to Voden's words, but neither of them looked upset about their comrades being abandoned, and he finally thought to wonder who those so-called bandits were and where they came from.

Qord pulled Tao onto his knees, his arms wrenched behind his back. The chain in his chest struggled to push in deeper and settled finally for springing once again to sharp focus.

Voden looked Tao over, up and down, before finally waving in his general direction. “Take them out; we'll have to leave them. No time to pack.” Laafi frowned at that, but he didn't argue. Tao watched the young man as Qord pulled at Tao's hair, bending him backwards as the man reached for the knot at the small of his back. Tao stilled, his eyes widening as the chain slackened slightly. Of course it hurt even worse as the chain was quickly ripped off him; he screamed once as one side was pulled off, then again, higher, louder, as Laafi came and unwound the opposite side, around and around, until in just a few moments it was pulled from him entirely. His scream turned garbled as he swayed on his knees, and Qord finally let go of his hair. He fell. For a moment, he thought the slight squelching sound due to water on the floor. It came through a muddy mind that there hadn’t been any before.

Voden picked his way to his side, most likely avoiding several red puddles on the floor, and patted his shoulder – right on a wound. Tao twitched, but just that effort to escape the touch made everything worse, and he finally lay still. Voden hummed approval. “We'll make you useful yet,” he said. Tao gritted his teeth. He heard Voden ruffling around in his cloak and wanted to weep.

The feel of his wounds sewing themselves up nearly made him pass out again. Only the thought of Dar nearby, of the battle raging just a short distance away, made him keep his head. If he fell unconscious, he would simply be dragged away from Dar. He had to stay awake.

He was turned to his side, then his other, and finally Voden fixed his chest and stomach, hovering the horn over Tao's body just long enough for the wounds to seal.

It still took a moment for Tao to move, as his body remembered wounds that were no longer there, but when he did, he struggled to even sit up. Qord, apparently bored now, moved to grab a few things from the room as Voden went to the wall he'd come through. Tao looked there, as well, and heard a noise like footsteps. Somehow, somehow, he recognized the gait. Dar. It was Dar. He just barely managed to get his legs underneath him, nearly falling over for his efforts, and turned to the sound. “Dar!”

Voden glared at him and raised his hand. Tao leaned forward, ready to trip the man with his face if he had to, but Laafi grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. The rocks ground against one another as Voden pulled one along the floor. It was large, its top chopped off in a way that said it might have once been a stalactite before someone put their weapon to it, and it nearly filled the hole in the wall. Tao struggled in Laafi's grip until the young man had to wrap around behind him and hold his other shoulder, too. “Dar!” he shouted again, just as the grating sound subsided, but he couldn't hear Dar's footsteps anymore. The echo had been cut off.

“Get him up,” Voden said, turning as the glow dimmed to nothing again. Voden didn't even bother looking at Tao anymore. “We'll go the other way.”

Laafi cleared his throat. “There's a tiger there, sir,” he said.

Tao's relief didn't last a second. “I will bar its path to us.”

Tao heard something slam into the rock Voden had moved, and he swiveled his head once more to the sound. “Tao!” he heard, and the sound of Dar's voice made him weak.

“Dar!” Laafi let him go, only for Qord to return to him.

Something rang against the rock again. Most likely, Dar was using his sword as a battering ram. “Tao!”

Voden raised his hand again, already moving into the hall, his hand glowing brown once more. Beyond him, Tao could hear more stones shuffling, but this time he heard Arina shouting. He perked up.

Qord grabbed him by his upper arm and dragged him forward, following after Voden. Laafi pulled up the rear.

He saw quickly what Voden had done; the large cavern was now barred with the stalactites that had once kept the prisoners in place. Beyond them was a battlefield, men lying wounded or dead on the ground, a few more guarding Sendar, who was still trapped in chains. Arina fought like a lioness, her teeth bared as she caught sight of Tao, her hair whipping like a mane behind her. She roared and charged forward, stopped by two men. She kicked one out of the way and screamed Voden's name. Voden barely spared her a glance. “If you hurt him, I'll kill you!” she said, then caught Tao's eye again. Then her gaze skimmed down, and Tao could only imagine what he looked like, his wounds healed but his blood still covering his chest, his shirt torn. Her snarl grew until she screamed, her battle cry incoherent. She slammed the hilt of her sword into the second man's head and ran until the stalactites stopped her. Then she was out of sight, beyond Tao's field of vision.

Voden raised his right hand this time, and it glowed a strange yellow-white. Tao heard something outside the cave crackle. They were close enough to the entrance now for Tao to hear Ruh snarling, to hear the dull, crashing echo of something slamming against the rocks again and again. The pounding finally stalled as Ruh caught their approach. Tao imagined the big cat backing up a few steps, all the better to launch himself at someone's neck.

The crackling sound repeated, and then a light cracked across the sky beyond the rock, and Ruh snarled loudly. Tao trembled, wishing he could stand, wishing to press his face to the small hole in the rocks – bigger than he remembered – and peek out. Was lightning truly coming down in what had been sunny daylight? Tao remembered Voden's words then – water and thunder. People often called lightning thunder. Was that what Voden had meant? He glanced at the man from the corner of his eye, but all he could see was the bright glow and a few beads of sweat on the man's face and neck. The next time lightning flashed, loud and bright enough to show it had likely been only a few paces from the door, the amount of sweat multiplied.

It was Voden, he realized, but it was a difficult spell. He couldn't keep it up. Tao tensed to yank himself free as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

The rocks at the entrance moved. Tao prepared to fall in the general vicinity of Ruh. He froze as the rocks showed the outside world. It was dark, darker than he'd expected. He hadn't known he'd been captured for so long. But worse was the sight of Ruh, on his side, on the ground. Unmoving. Tao's hands trembled in their bindings. “Ruh,” he breathed. The tiger didn't move. Sharak shrieked from above and swooped down, clawing at Qord's face, and Tao realized he was supposed to escape. He wrenched his arm free and fell backward, his gaze caught on the sight of Ruh. He didn't even think to crawl back inside the cave, toward Arina and Dar. Instead he wormed his way to Ruh's side.

Once he was closer, he could see that the tiger was still breathing. There was no mark of injury, no burn mark, but that happened sometimes. Tao hadn't seen many survive a lightning strike. He leaned his head on the tiger's belly, the best he could do with his hands bound behind him. Ruh's heartbeat was smooth – that was strange. His breaths was even – that was unheard of. He leaned back up and frowned down at Ruh's body. Voden shouted something from behind him, and he heard footsteps hurrying to him. Sharak called out. The lack of a wound made it apparent Ruh was injured by the lightning. But lightning did more than simply knock someone unconscious. Had it only hit a glancing blow somehow?

Or, he thought, remembering Dar's explanation of what Jabez had done – thrown a giant length of flame at him – and reconciling it with what Voden had done – small fireballs. He'd managed to move the earth enough, and that was impressive. But what if his other skills were relatively negligible? What if the best Voden could do was enough only to knock Ruh unconscious?

He nearly collapsed from relief, as all the nagging details slotted into place: the party tricks (a water bubble in Voden's hand), the large stones moved back and forth, but never used to attack, the lack of knowledge, the ramshackle rings, the paltry power supply (two lightning bolts and he was done?). Voden was magically weak. Perhaps he had little ability at all, if any. If that was the case, then Voden wasn't as dangerous – in that way – as they'd been led to believe. The displaced king was playing at being a powerful being. The Sorceress could probably use him as a toy.

He heard Voden taking potshots at the sky and turned, just in time to see Qord raging toward him, and he lifted his chin high. He wouldn't try to run, not with Ruh in such a vulnerable position. Voden, beyond Qord, was grinning like a loon, waving his left hand in the air, attacking the air with little bursts of fire. Sharak was dodging and turning and flapping his wings madly, trying to keep away from the assault.

Qord wrapped his hand around the back of Tao’s neck. “King Voden,” Qord said. “I believe it's time to go.”

Voden turned to Qord and tilted his head. “Fine.” He sent Sharak another look, then threw one last, thin line of flames at the bird, forcing him to dive away or risk his feathers catching fire. Laafi hurried over to help Qord with Tao. Tao struggled, wrenching his shoulder away from Laafi's hand, but Qord squeezed Tao's neck until he choked. Laafi managed to get a firmer hold on him then.

Finally Tao was lifted, and Tao sent one last glance at Sharak and Ruh, unwilling to fight too much with their lives at stake. Sharak screeched as Voden led the way into the meadow. Tao thought the eagle might be making Tao a promise – to keep his eye on him until Dar found him again.

Tao closed his eyes and took solace in the thought.


	4. Return of the Mad King, Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for how long these updates take. In deference to this wait, I hope you enjoy this extraordinarily long 'episode.' /bows/

“ _He's my friend. Don't you hurt him.”_

  


 

 

 

 

Dar stared blindly at the remnants of the cave.

Tao.

He'd raced in the opposite direction once he'd realized the rock barring him from Tao's side wasn't going to budge. But by the time he'd traversed the narrow path, Tao had already been gone. He'd gone back up, stopping only when he saw Arina, who merely pointed him toward the original opening of the cave. And then Sharak, who had called for him, tried to hold Voden off. And Ruh, Ruh, who was unconscious on the ground, still unmoving after being checked over by Tao. Tao, who was dragged from Ruh’s side by Qord – Qord, his murderous fingers wrapped around Tao's neck. He thought of it, Tao bound hand and foot, unable to so much as grab the hand wrapped around him, and wanted to scream.

Dar had raced out, finding Ruh seemingly dead on the ground, and he'd run to Ruh's side, even as Sharak shouted for him to hurry, feeling Ruh's fur, feeling the steady inhale, before getting up to continue on. Sharak had followed Voden to a small boat, only large enough for Voden and Qord and the young boy with them. They'd nearly hung Tao into the water to get themselves going, and had only pulled him up once they'd gotten moving. Dar had watched through Sharak's eyes as Tao coughed up water onto the boat, only to get kicked in the gut for his trouble.

Now Dar was standing in the cave as his soldiers tended the wounded and bound the bandits. He stood stupidly as rocks were beaten down with swords taken from the bandits' hands. He felt numb. A few soldiers searched for a way to cross the sea, and the seagulls and fish were following the boat to its destination. Until he found a way to cross – short of swimming, and the distance to the island was just too far. He would be exhausted from the trip and easily defeated.

But before Voden got away, he had to do something. He asked the animals to help him, begged them in a way he hadn't thought he would be willing to do, and he was amazed at how quickly they responded, from the fish to the birds to a few crocodiles lounging further downstream, where the cliff face smoothed into a grassy beach. All of them hurried to Tao's side, ready to delay Voden despite the dangers. The response made Dar's heart turn in his chest; he never should have left the animals, even to stabilize the world. He would never be able to repay this debt.

So now he was there, trying to find something to get his brother out of his chains, being led like a lost lamb by Arina, who took charge faster than he, demanding explanations for everything. It was through her that he learned that the villagers had been held hostage against Sendar and his men when they came to stop Voden. He learned that his brother had demanded each villager go free, one villager in exchange for one soldier, until all were let go and scattered to the winds as Sendar gave himself up to Voden. Dar was pulled from his grief enough to thank Sendar for his sacrifice, and for his brother to turn his head to the side and huff, “it was my duty.”

Then Arina was tugging him along to the narrow passageway, muttering about getting him somewhere quiet while a soldier used her dagger to try to break Sendar's chains.

Then they stepped into the small chamber at the back of the cave, and they froze.

The torch was still lit in the room, one of many tokens Voden had abandoned in his efforts to escape. It was perhaps the worst thing in the room, if only because it allowed Dar to see all the others.

On the right side of the room was a rock, thin and tall, with two chain cuffs swinging idly from the top. They were open, unlocked, but Dar could see, in his mind's eye, Tao trapped by those cuffs. Beside that, what Dar recognized as a tool used for hurting horses – a rider's crop, or something. It was on the ground beside the pole, and he thought of Tao, trapped against the pole, getting beaten.

But all of these images froze and disappeared and contorted the moment his eyes took in the rest of the items on the ground. Strips of Tao's clothing. A chain, long, abandoned to the floor, coated in sharp barbs, each and every one drenched in blood.

And oh, the blood. Dar's eyes stung at the sight of it. A puddle of it, just below the pole. And beside it, in small splatters and scrubbed everywhere as if someone had smeared it on the ground like a canvas. So much... how was Tao not dead?

That thought made everything jumble in his mind until he couldn't think anything at all, could only see all that blood and the sight of Tao, struggling to breathe on the boat.

Arina cursed, loudly, vehemently, over and over again, and nearly dragged Dar from the room. “Goddamn you, Voden, I will skin you alive for this,” she hissed, her gaze stuck on the bloodstains, as well, until finally they were far enough down the passageway that they couldn't see any of it anymore. “Come on, Dar. Dar. We have to get going. They can't be too far. They have to still be on the island. Right? Right, Dar?” And she shook him, just a little.

Tao. Tao was injured. He'd seen the blood; it had caked the front of Tao's shirt. But Tao had seemed relatively uninjured, and Dar – just what had he expected? He shook his head. One quick call to the seagulls confirmed that Voden and Qord were only just landing on the island. Sharak was struggling to catch up; his eagle wings weren't made to catch the strange swells of air over the water, but he would do it. If he asked, the animals would flock to attack him. Dar remembered the fire Voden threw at Sharak, however, and asked that they just try to slow him down, or to stay back entirely, if it was too dangerous.

Swimming would exhaust him, but Tao was bleeding profusely. He couldn’t begin to guess how long Tao had. Exhaustion didn’t matter anymore.

“They're on the island,” he managed to say, and Arina pulled him past the cavern.

“My liege?” one soldier asked, stopping Arina, looking at Dar like one might an injured child. Dar managed a short nod. “Sir, if you're going after them, please take some of us, as well.”

“We don't have transport,” Dar said, but the idea of these men wanting to follow him bolstered his resolve. Tao was still alive. Injured, alone, but alive. Dar would get him back. He would. And it wouldn't be too late.

“Sir, if we must, we will swim with you until we drown.”

The words made Dar glare down at the man. “Your life is not one to throw away, Ducard.” The name came to him just as he said it, and he remembered the man, suddenly. He'd followed Dar through the mist after just a couple of weeks of him as king; he'd pledged his life to Dar that very day, still grinning from the victory of arriving. Sendar had recruited him to Dar's army immediately.

“It wouldn't be thrown away if it helped you,” he said, and his bright jade eyes were wide on Dar's. He remembered that he was king then, in a way he hadn't remembered since racing to the Vella camp. The lack of robes and crown seemed to matter very little to Ducard, who still stared at Dar as if he was born from the sun's rays. “What do you need us to do? Tell us, and it will be done.”

Dar had to stop himself from telling the man to simply stay back; his army existed to help him, and he had to remember that he was no longer alone. “I need some men to stay behind and protect Ruh and Sendar. Others will have to stay with them, build a fire, continue searching for a drier way to get to the island.” He thought of what he might face and said, “distribute the weapons amongst you all. Keep constant watch on the prisoners; see if any of them will tell you anything. If they won't together, try separately. Men falter when alone.” Alone. He wouldn't let himself ponder that word.

Already Arina was leaving him behind, as frantic as he to reach Tao. “Five of you – the best fighters, two in close combat, three in medium- or long-range, come with me.” He paused and asked his animal friends exactly where Voden was, and they reported him to be heading over to the west side of the island, toward a larger boat. His heart seized in his chest. He hurried to the exit. “Head to the east side of the island and sneak from behind. If we haven't gotten to Tao, focus on getting him out of there.” Dar didn't want to think about how far Voden planned on going, or whether Tao would be in one piece when they arrived. He would stop Voden in his tracks before he ever got off that island. Or else Tao... no, no, he wouldn't think about it! “Just hurry,” he said, and rushed off.

Arina, when he exited the cave, was already hurrying around to the meadow's edge. It had been further up that the boat had been waiting to take Voden and Tao away, but here, the island was just that little bit closer. “He's getting ready to leave the island,” Dar said, and Arina barely took the time to nod before she was unstrapping the dyed leather skirt at her hip and diving into the water. Dar quickly followed suit, dropping the pack with Kodo and Podo inside and ordering them to stay with Ruh. They squeaked an affirmative as he joined Arina in the water.

It was colder than he'd expected, but he'd hardly been of a mind to notice how dark it had become. The lack of light would have leeched any remaining warmth from the water. Arina wasn't waiting for him, but soon enough he'd caught up. She was a fine enough swimmer – if she wasn't, she would have died after falling off that cliff all those months ago – but he was an expert. She huffed as he sidled up next to her, then glared at him as he stayed in pace. He accepted the rebuttal and hurried ahead of her.

Voden was finding his boat to have a hole in it, courtesy of a few helpful crabs, and the damage was forcing him to delay his retreat. Qord was making camp, most likely fortifying their position on the island. Tao was near Qord, obviously under the man's guard. From what Sharak could see, finally reaching the island, Tao was shivering and eyeing Qord's every move. When Qord made to leave the camp and passed by Tao, he stopped just behind Tao's head. Tao nearly bent his spine backward trying to catch the man's eye, and when he nearly did, Qord put his boot on Tao's face and squashed it into the wet grass. Dirt clung to Tao's face. Dar seethed. The image was enough to push him that little bit harder. Tao wasn't able to defend himself, and as Sharak watched, the immortal eagle's anger feeding his own, Qord kept his face trapped beneath his foot for a minute, two, before finally pressing harder for one short moment and letting him up. Tao did not raise his head again until Qord had left, and that last sight hurt more than the rest. Tao looked tired. Dar's limbs ached from the swim, and the island still stood against the horizon, still a ways away. So far. Too far.

Then he heard the sound of movement in the water and stopped swimming to strain his ears. Whatever it was didn't respond for a moment, and he feared he would have to try the awkward attempt to grab his sword from his back.

The voice that suddenly called for him, however, made him sigh in relief. He turned back to Arina, who was quickly catching up to him. “Arina.”

“Dar? Why have you stopped?”

“A couple of friends have come to help us,” he said, grinning, and though it was dark, they were now close enough to make out the fins cutting through the water.

One came to him, another to Arina, and one more swam away, past Dar, to grab one of his men struggling to match pace through the water. They'd come inland a bit more than usual for the trip, and Dar thanked them profusely for it. He wrapped one hand around the fin and waited for Arina to copy his move before asking them to go. They wasted no time, hurrying through the water. Arina's eyes widened at it, and Dar felt a nearly painful pang of loss as he thought of how Tao would have responded had he been riding the third, the grin of delight and spark of wonder in his eye. He thought of the ridiculous rant Tao would begin, something about a device that could swim underwater, perhaps. He imagined how Tao's mouth would fill with sea water, how he would splutter and complain and never, never lose his grin, and he swore that he would give Tao such an experience, if only he got him back in time.

* * *

The night was cold, especially with torn clothes and skin still wet from an impromptu dunk in the sea. But that wasn't why he shivered uncontrollably.

He knew Dar was out there, chasing him down. He knew Dar would stop at nothing to get to him – the boat had already suffered damages, and while Voden and Qord were suspicious, Tao was certain it was because of Dar.

And that left him with a very difficult decision. Because as much as he wanted Dar to catch up with him in time, he couldn't let him.

He clenched his eyes shut. Voden had found the temple with the chant on how to defeat Awun. Though Voden had only found a piece, even that was more than they had at the moment. If Tao could see this information for himself... if he could piece it all together...

It was an opportunity Tao couldn't afford to pass up. Simply knowing this piece of the chant was from wherever Voden hailed wasn't nearly good enough. It could take them weeks, months, to find the place, when instead all Tao had to do was wait a few days.

But the idea of what could happen in a few days made his body seize up.

He breathed deeply. He just had to get through it. Voden wouldn't kill him, not while he could get answers out of him. Which meant that as long as Dar followed behind, they could reach the temple with Tao still, if nothing else, alive, and they could find information within.

Of course, the only serious issue with that plan was getting too close, because Voden's men were there, waiting, and if they waited too long before surprising Voden, then Tao really would be trapped within.

But even if he was, he would just have to find a way to get the information Dar needed and then get back out. He'd been tortured before – Zad had helped him gain a small immunity to it – and as long as he wasn't killed...

But he shuddered at the thought of that chain being near him again, and he couldn't help but jump at the idea of Qord being too close...

No. No, he would just have to deal with it.

He needed to not get saved. But that was looking more and more impossible, and he was feeling the twin emotions of relief and concern, joy and horror. He felt like he was being torn in half.

“Enough,” Voden said finally. “Laafi, stay behind.” Tao jerked at that and looked up, but Laafi didn't seem even remotely disgruntled by it. “Keep the Beastmaster busy. If he's the same as he was, then he won't kill you. Just force him back as long as possible. Qord. Get him.” Voden waved a pale hand in Tao's direction, and Tao flinched. “I'll keep the water from the boat long enough for us to reach the ship.”

Qord snatched Tao by the arm again, and Tao winced slightly; a bruise was apparently forming where Qord grabbed. He was dragged from his place on the ground to the boat and thrown within. The water immediately filled the space, dampening Tao's clothes and chilling him all over again. His teeth chattered.

Voden and Qord joined him then, Voden's hand glowing a light blue, and the water receded as if the floor of the boat was completely solid. Tao's heart hammered. He'd wanted this. Well, wanted was a strong word. But since he'd made the decision, he should stick to it.

He felt like he had that day he'd told Dar to hurry off to take care of Arina when Zad had captured him and had him make swords for his army. Willingly alone, all to protect another. Panic shimmered just underneath his skin as Voden pushed the water behind him. Tao could see perspiration on Voden's neck and upper lip and had a brand-new fear. If Voden lost control of the water, even for an instant, Tao would sink like a stone.

He stayed quiet, the very thought of struggling in his bonds as he sank to the sea floor granting him a patience for silence he hadn't previously owned.

Besides, he would need to learn how to be silent very quickly. He had no idea how long he would be at Voden's and Qord's nonexistent mercy.

* * *

Dar didn't need to receive Sharak's vision to know he was too late. He'd felt it in his gut as soon as he'd stepped onto land, the dolphins waiting for him in the slightly deeper waters, keeping themselves safe from being beached.

He knew it for certain as soon as he stepped onto land and the young man stepped out of the short bushes on the edge of the island, swinging a small sword just barely longer than a normal dagger. The young man was buying time for Voden. And without a doubt, Tao would be with the mad king. In order to harm Dar, or for his own reasons – the soldiers had told him Voden was looking for information on Dar, on the magic he himself commanded, on several things, and there was no one Dar knew with more information within him than Tao. And so Tao was gone, and he was too late, and even as those horrible words resounded in his mind, this young man dared stand in Dar's way.

This time, Dar's sword did not turn into his staff.

* * *

Arina eyed Dar as they rested around the campsite that had already been half-made – by Qord, Dar had told her, his words soft and short. Their prisoner, bloody but alive, was unconscious against a tree, watched over by Arina, because she was the only one with enough focus to do even that much.

Dar looked out to the sea, his head tilted slightly, and she knew he was receiving news about Voden. Dar had called on animals far and wide, asking for their help, using his ability in a way she'd never seen him use before. But she couldn't bring it up, remembering the blood. Tao could well be dead, or near it, and Dar's tension was mirrored in her own body, every muscle ready to spring the moment an opportunity arose. For now, the tension thrummed against her nerves, nearly bringing pain, a desire to launch without the ability to move.

“He's reached a ship,” Dar said, his lips curling.

A few minutes later, Dar's men came out of the woods, several carrying firewood, others still wet from the roundabout route Dar had ordered them to take. Each was silent, carefully unobtrusive, as they set about making the camp a bit wider to accommodate their needs. Dar stood to help, and one of them came and bound their prisoner with wet rope. It woke the young man up, but weaponless, all he could do was spit and snarl. The soldier binding him leaned over and said something, and the young man went quiet, though his eyes still stabbed fire at the man.

Setting up didn't take nearly as long as Dar clearly needed it to, and she let him wander the island, curling like a tiger trapped. The fire burned bright in the darkness, stealing her night vision. Soldiers had taken up the watch around the perimeter, though she knew it was useless. Better to have them, she eventually decided; after all, she didn't have the ability to focus on more than the need to move, to get to Tao.

Dar must have been feeling it even more than she; their bond had always been stronger. Like brothers, yet even closer, as if they had the same blood running through their bodies, pain echoing through them both when one was hurt. She thought she and Tao had gotten closer, as they both struggled to find a place without their compass. She'd been there for him when he'd first entered Xinca again, as people turned very different stares on him than Tao was used to. He was there when she first returned to her homeland and stared at her baby's grave as if, if she stared long enough, she could raise the child back into her womb and start over, all over, and somehow do it better. He'd moved in with the Vella after the reception at Xinca, after being named a leader only because of his station as a rare surviving Eiron, and she had traveled the world, selfishly pulling Tao along when the woods got too quiet.

But she still couldn't compete with the camaraderie between Dar and Tao, the way they gravitated to one another. How Tao would always work on a project beside Dar; how Dar would always return to camp by Tao, as if to be closer to him faster. As if the two were connected.

And if they were? How did it feel, to feel the echo of that horrible chain digging into his flesh, knowing it was digging into Tao's? It made her furious, the knowledge of it, but all Dar could see was his friend's agony.

Dar returned to camp, looking even more tired than ever, his eyes wide open as if ready for an attack, and Arina was suddenly reminded of the first time she and Dar had met, the driven focus he’d had on finding Tao, getting to him. But she couldn't pull Dar out of his funk this time. Not when they knew Tao was in danger. Hurt.

Their prisoner watched Dar for a moment, two, and she saw him open his mouth. She glared a warning at him, but still he spoke. “You have my respect, Beastmaster,” he said, and Dar looked at the man. “You have not tortured me for information.”

Dar pulled back his lips. “I'm not the one who uses such methods.”

The prisoner didn't look chagrined in any way, just nodded as if simply hearing Dar's opinion and not the accusation. “Your friend will not be harmed if he cooperates.”

Dar's lips thinned. He was obviously thinking the same as Arina – if it meant harming Dar in any way, Tao would not cooperate. “And if he doesn't?”

The prisoner didn't frown, didn't grin, didn't even shrug. “He will.”

Dar moved again, getting ready to pace, but Arina was the one who acted, who moved to the boy's side and held his jaw in one hand. “Hope that you're wrong,” she hissed, and the boy's eyes narrowed. “Tao is a good man. If anything happens to him, we will tear your world apart.”

The boy finally reacted, lifting his chin. “We hold with us the master of the lands and elements. The lord of destruction leads us. If anything will be torn apart, it will be by his hand, not yours.”

Arina dropped him, her fingers suddenly like ice. She thought of Awun's dark gaze fixing on Tao. “He leads you?” she asked, vaguely aware of Dar stopping his pacing and staring at the blond.

“He knows you,” the boy continued. A small grin played at the edges of his lips, his eyes bright. Enjoying the conversation. “He knows you, especially, Beastmaster,” he said, and Arina felt a bit sick. “He remembers how you refused to help him. He remembers the intelligence of your friend. You've been wasting the man's potential. So he thought to make better use of him.”

Something sharp twisted in her stomach.

“Fear not. Once your friend learns he can't escape, once he accepts Voden as his master, then the punishments will stop.”

Arina shook her head, the sharp something in her chest and stomach loosening so fast it hurt anew. “Voden? You think Voden is the lord of destruction?”

The kid's lips turned down a bit then, and Arina was glad. She didn't think Dar would approve of hitting a bound man. “Of course. The scripture says so.”

Scripture? Arina scowled. “What are you talking about?”

The blond shook his head, his eyes widening. “Of course you don't know,” he said. “We live to the north, where the ices encroach. But we will not leave our temple. We are protected.” The boy leaned forward. “The Herald. And as the Message states, the cold and darkness brought the cleanse of nothing to everything.”

Dar's brows furrowed. Arina was left to ask. “What?”

“He came, through fire, just as it was said. His vessel, the forgotten child.” The young man struggled in his bonds as if trying to move his hands, to make a point. “In his hand was fire. And when he came, he came in bright guise, with a smile and a desire for death.”

Dar's mouth worked, then he shook his head. “Voden isn't the lord of darkness. Awun is.”

“Voden is a child, one used to getting his way,” Arina said, backing Dar up, though she already knew he would ignore them.

And he did, rolling their words off like water. “The forgotten child, yes, the vessel of destruction. The one who will purge the lands and raze them to dust.”

“Enough.” Arina waved her hand and jerked when one of Dar's men came forward and gagged the prisoner. Dar made a short sound, but when his guard looked to him, he said nothing. The warrior tied the gag and backed away, hovering for a moment before returning to watching the edges of the island. “Dar.” It took him a moment to look at her. “We need to find a way to follow Voden.”

“The animals are watching him,” he said. His voice was raw. If she couldn't see his face through the firelight, she would think he was crying. It wasn't like him.

“Dar? Are you okay?”

She put her hand on his shoulder, only to feel the skin beneath her fingers jump. She pulled them back. Dar shook his head, closed his eyes, shook his head again. His lips firmed. “Not one week back, and you two are already in danger.”

Arina scowled. “Shut up with that right now, Dar.” Dar blinked at her. “You didn't start any of this; Awun did. Everything that's happened is because of him. Not you.” Dar had that odd look on him; Arina wondered if it was the same one he'd worn when considering dropping his quest when he'd thought she'd died. “Besides,” she said, gentler now, and Dar's brow furrowed at the change, “Tao is happy you're back. I'm sure if he were here, he'd tell you that any danger is worth it. You're his friend.”

Something akin to guilt played over his face, a guilt different from that of concern or fear. Maybe he regretted not coming to see them? She wanted to feel bitter about it, bust she couldn't. His rule was still so new. He had to be busy. And if Tao could recognize that, then she could recognize it, too.

“Come on,” she said, and this time when she clapped his shoulder, he didn't pull away. “We need our strength to pursue these guys come morning. Let's get some rest.”

She felt the shiver of Dar's muscles, a tension, then a rush of resigned defeat. “You're right,” he said finally. She took the victory silently and watched as Dar shuffled down to the ground to sleep. Only after she was certain he wouldn't just stare into the fire all night did she do the same.

* * *

The morning light attacked his eyes as Voden entered the small space hidden beneath the ship deck. Tao squinted and shivered as the ocean breeze burst into the room. Voden looked like a god, his white cape brimming with light from the outside. He hadn't seen the outdoors since they'd made it to Voden's larger ship and he'd been dragged into this small cubbyhole of a room. He'd been relieved, however. He hadn't seen Voden or Qord before this moment.

“Tao.” His lips pulled back at the condescending tone. “I have no desire to harm you. In fact, I quite respect you. Knowledgeable, savvy. Loyal. These are all commendable traits in a man.” Voden stepped inside, closer, and Tao had to fight to not back away. “You have shown yourself to be a wise and dependable man to your friends. And you stand strong against enemies far greater than you. Also a commendable trait, I suppose, if foolish.”

Tao tensed. Of course Voden had the unicorn horn; he pulled it from his cloak and looked upon it, almost the same way he had back in the cave. “I don't know anything more about the gems. It's all speculative at best. And I already told you all I know about Awun.”

“Yes. You did.” Voden's ice blue eyes glinted. “But I doubt you told me everything.” He took a breath and pointed the horn at Tao. “It's that loyalty of yours, Tao. You see, I think you're hiding something. Multiple somethings, in fact. Pertaining to the Beastmaster? He always does seem to be in the thick of it all, doesn't he?” Voden smiled. “And you're always right there with him.”

“So?” he asked.

It was the wrong thing to say. Voden's grin widened into something almost reptilian. “So your secrets are his, are they not? Anything that may be his to know, you keep for him.” He waved the horn and stepped closer. Tao tensed. He'd been left tied in the small room, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight. It just meant he couldn't fight _well_. Or win. “That loyalty of yours should be for someone smarter, someone far more powerful than your dear Beastmaster.”

“No one deserves it more than Dar,” Tao said, lifting his chin. Only his hands were bound, and behind his back. His feet had been untied, most likely so that he could relieve himself in the bucket in the corner of the room. It gave him the chance to fight back, so long as he avoided Voden's gemstone magic.

Voden sighed. “The Beastmaster is certainly lucky to be able to accrue such loyalty. Even from those who used to swear their allegiance to another.” Voden stepped closer. Tao tensed. Even if he managed to defeat Voden, what would his next step be? He couldn't possibly defeat all of Voden's men. And if he could, he couldn't swim from deep rivers and hope to reach land. And if land was in sight, would he reach it before the animals or the elements got to him? And if he did, what were the chances he would ever read the prophecy that Dar needed to know?

So while he tensed, he considered the battle already lost. He altered his thoughts from defeating Voden to appeasing him, or perhaps even manipulating him. He didn't want to get stabbed again.

“There,” Voden said, nodding toward Tao as he untensed. Noticing the change. “All that brilliance, wasted in the wild.”

“It's only wasted if I decide it is so,” Tao said. He'd already accepted that the best place for him was right where Dar needed him, whether that be by his side or guarding over Balcifer's remains with the Vella. Though, to be fair, he thought with another pang of guilt, he'd failed in the latter task. “What did you come here for, Voden?”

It was a risk, saying the man's name without the 'king' attached. The man's grip on the unicorn horn tightened. One of the gems sparked; the red agate. Linked to anger, maybe? Or maybe the man just didn't have much control over that particular element. Or over anything; Voden's temper was something that seemed to take the man over whenever it rose.

Like now, as Voden finally stepped into Tao's personal space, and Tao had to control himself not to lash out, or to fight back in any way, or even to show his fear as Voden brought his hand up and touched Tao's cheek. He was ready for the magic, for the gems to light up and for something like fire or lightning to touch his skin. He had actually managed, in one short half-second, to forget about the unicorn horn.

Voden only slashed down Tao's side, through the tears and rips already decimating his shirt. It was a low fire, after everything else he'd dealt with, and he was certain it was merely a reminder. Voden grinned and patted Tao's cheek. “There, you see? It doesn't take too much effort to get those like you to show their hands, so to speak. You are hiding something. Why else would you egg me on?”

Tao barely hid his grimace as Voden laid out Tao's own reasoning.

“Now, do try to give me the proper respect. I understand those in the wilderness don't care much about kings or countries – or, at least, they shouldn't. Your Beastmaster played me rather well back then, didn't he? Acting like he didn't care about such things.”

Tao didn't know how to tell the man that Dar hadn't cared back then, not because he didn't care about people, but because he didn't separate them into groups, and he didn't care about leaders. He doubted any attempt to explain such things to this man wouldn't end in failure. So he kept his mouth shut.

His silence made Voden grin. “Now, now. Don't be like that. You and I still have a lot to talk about.”

Tao didn't have anything left to say to him. And Tao knew Voden could read such a thing on Tao's features. But instead of getting angry, the man's smile simply turned rueful.

He wasn't going to leave, Tao realized. This was no longer a visit to try to frighten Tao, or intimidate him, or to confirm Voden's suspicions on what Tao may or may not be hiding. It was to gain information. And if that were the case, he would almost wish Qord back. If it were Qord, then it would all just be mindless violence, and Tao would be able to handle that. Or, at least, after what had happened with Zad when Zad had tried to torture the whereabouts of the Crystal Ark from him, or just recently, when Qord wrapped those chains around his body, Tao had been able to resist. But Voden's torture was more devious, more cunning. He thought of Bakhtiar, Voden's once cursed brother, and cringed.

“You know,” Voden said, his voice like he was sipping tea over a tiny table and not leaning into Tao's body, pressing the horn into his stomach, “I do find you and your Beastmaster friend so very interesting. His power alone could have made me a god.” Tao shivered, and snarled, and ignored the pain as the horn pricked through the layers of skin. “But the man's way of thinking? _Your_ way of thinking? It's odd. You have your own little circle, your own little world.” Voden's words were whispered into his ear now, and each breath ghosted over him like the touch of the dead. “And yet you demand the rest of the world bow down to you. Your way of thinking. 'Protect the animals.' 'Save the forests.' 'Help people.'” The man scoffed, and when he pulled back, he took the horn with him. Tao sighed. Momentary as it may have been, it was a reprieve nonetheless. “Though I suppose your Beastmaster always was a leader.”

There was a look involved there, one that said that Tao was not a leader, he was a follower. And though Tao would readily admit the truth of it, there was something more connoted in those eyes. It was dark, almost burdensome, and it made Tao shiver again. There was something about it that made Tao think the man had made some sort of assumption about his and Dar's relationship, and that it might be best if he never found out what that assumption was.

Voden looked Tao up and down. “What would it take,” he said, as if thinking out loud, “for someone like you to switch loyalties?”

A complete personality makeover? Tao thought, but didn't dare say it. Let the man ramble. The more he did, the less time he had to torture Tao before they arrived at their destination. Tao would need to be transported, and Voden, mad though he certainly was, wouldn't want to harm Tao to the point where he wouldn't be able to focus on explaining whatever the man didn't understand about the prophecy.

He wondered if maybe the prophecy needed translation, or if perhaps it was written in code. Had parts of it been decrypted, but not others? He itched to find out, to learn what Dar needed in order to defeat Awun. He needed to be useful, to make up to Dar the fact that he let Balcifer fall into Awun's hands. The prophecy might be the key to Awun's defeat. It had been for Balcifer; it followed that perhaps the same would be for said for Awun.

In any case, he needed to find out. Nothing would be lost by gleaning all the knowledge possible. But not getting enough? That could cost Dar his life. It could cost the entire world.

Voden stared at Tao in silence for a while, much longer than Tao thought the man could stand. The stillness finally made Tao wary. He didn't know what Voden was planning – could anyone ever predict madness? – but the unusual calm was a prelude to something.

“It’s been said,” Voden said finally, “that men, when they undergo extreme stress, will forget themselves.”

Tao froze.

“You are a learned man,” Voden said. He twisted and turned the horn in his hand, rubbed his thumb over the ridges. Tao's heart pounded in his chest. “Do you believe there's truth to these stories?”

Tao's mouth turned to sand. He'd heard similar tales, that men tortured beyond their endurance would become broken. “Yes,” he said, and he fought to keep his voice level. “But these men have also lost many skills. Some lose the ability to fight. Others the ability to draw intricate pictures.” To break meant to not only lose one's memories, but also the innate sense of who a person was. If that was what Voden wanted, it would mean Tao might lose his skills as a healer. It might mean he would lose... if he forgot about Dar, then he would lose a core piece of who he was. That alone was enough to tell Tao that he couldn't allow it.

But breaking a man also took time. While Voden was obviously thinking long-term – well, that or foolishly believing such an endeavor would only take a short amount of time – Tao had no intention of staying so long. He would find a way to escape Voden's sanctuary. And if he didn't, he trusted Dar to come for him. Just as he had when Zad had taken him, Tao would have to pry Dar away. And this time, there were no animals that needed to be protected. As soon as Tao was done copying the prophecy, he would leave.

Just as he thought that, the boat jerked slightly and footsteps pounded on the steps outside the room. “My apologies,” a man said before he even arrived. When he did, it was with a thin beard and an immediate bow in deference to the younger ex-king. Voden's face contorted for a moment before he turned, frown still in place, but head tilted to show he was listening. “We're near,” the man said, finally raising his head. Voden nodded and waved one bejeweled hand, sending the messenger on his way.

Tao breathed in deep, adrenaline burning away the pain in his side. The fact remained that he was arriving at Voden's stronghold, and perhaps relying on Dar to get him out would be a bad idea. Dar could handle numbers, but too many and even he would fall. No, Tao would have to rely on his own intelligence and quick wit to free himself. From there, Dar could help him escape the place entirely.

His gut clenched. This was his last chance. Voden turned toward the door, and if Tao was going to take him by surprise, then it had to be now. This instant.

But Tao faltered, hesitated, because it was _important_ , for Dar's sake, for the world's sake, and he couldn't afford to run. Just as Voden reached the door, the man turned, a small grin on his face, and said, “not going to run, Tao?”

Tao's fingers curled into fists. If he'd tried to run, Voden would have been ready for it. He was very glad he hadn't. “I can't defeat you,” he said. “Not physically.”

Voden's grin widened. “Accepting a submissive role? It's a good first step.”

Tao's heart pounded in his ears as the door slammed shut on him again.

* * *

When the boat docked, Tao had just finished taking care of nature's call, and he was more than ready to leave his tiny room, even if it was to enter Voden's domain. He couldn't stand the lack of open space, the lack of sunlight. Even in the city, there was room to breathe and sky to see.

But when the door opened and Qord led him out, the bastard grinning as Tao leaned away from him, the sudden light hurt his eyes, and he had to close them as he stumbled off the boat. By the time his sight adjusted enough, he was already down the plank and walking on land – hard land, the wind brittle and icy against his exposed body, making him shiver and the wound Voden gave him burn. The world was ice, he found; he was walking on it, then on dry, cracked land. The sky was wide, nearly fathomless, and such a light blue as to almost seem white. Nothing sat around save a large stone structure that loomed only up to a man's head. Tao's heart pounded. It had to be another underground compound. He nearly dug in his heels at the memory of the last one.

It took a while to reach the place, despite how close it seemed, and Tao quickly learned that spacial awareness could be lost in such a dead, open area. His fingers were nearly numb by the time they finally entered the cave, gaining respite from the cold wind. Tao shivered almost convulsively as he was led inside, the cave entrance thin. Perhaps, from far away, a person might think it nothing more than a large rock just before the shore, and might not even enter that dead space. If that was the case, then, so long as no one was seen around the entrance, others might not even be aware this place existed.

The path slid into a deep decline, carved out into thin, shallow stairs, and Tao was dragged down, his feet nearly stumbling, tripping over himself. Qord merely yanked him back up when he fell. The place opened wide, wide enough that there would be no reason at all for a group of people to leave, save for more supplies. There would be no reason for anyone to ever know of this place. Hidden, untouched, passed by every traveler and conqueror both. The wide room was dark, lit with torches and, yes, Tao could see gemstones, as well, groups of them in glass bottles or metal mesh containers, their light brighter even than the flames. He squinted; he thought the gems might be diamonds, or, no, they were too translucent at times for that. Baddeleyite. He could see a small group of people far to his left working on one large group of the gems, holding them in their hands until the gems glowed brightly again. The people sweated profusely from the effort.

It might be something someone could learn to do, Tao thought, a stirring of interest coming over him despite everything. Could he, too, learn how to manipulate the stones to be used for such purposes? Think of the possibilities! No longer helpless in the dark; the cave was lit like twilight, light enough still despite the long cast of the shadows around the room. Tao could read at night, or follow footprints, or even light up the Sanctuary so that Dar could practice his martial arts…

Tao stopped, suddenly, amazed he'd let his mind go to such lengths when he knew very well Dar would have no need to ever return to the Sanctuary again.

Still, even with that knowledge weighing him down, he couldn't help but feel slightly excited by the thought of being able to create fire without slowly lighting kindling, or perhaps to create water where there was none and quench a man's thirst.

The room held more than just that one group, however, and everyone save those working on the baddeleyite stopped whatever they were doing and bowed. Voden raised one hand almost negligently as they passed, yet many smiled at the wave as if having been spoken to personally. Tao shivered as he caught the stares of those he passed, their looks of awe and adoration as Voden crossed their paths. The first one who saw him, on the other hand, took one look at his torn and bloodied clothes and frowned at him. One man nudged another, and suddenly all eyes were on him, all muscles tense. Tao's heart pounded in his chest. Had he been labeled enemy before even having the chance to speak to these men? Could he get them to lower their guard in time to get back to Dar before Dar did something reckless to get to him?

He was led to another room. This one seemed like some sort of barracks; the naturally-formed stalactites actually acted not only as support pillars but also as walls of a sort. Hollow depressions had been carved in the floor, where the drips from the top of the stalactites gathered into puddles. Tao saw children bend down, reach into the puddles, and sip, then go racing off after one another. Beyond the puddles were walkways, each leading to a small bed, or gathering of beds. A few were occupied, but most were empty. Even more eyes turned to him, and he was led through the middle of the room in a silent sort of procession. One woman went and grabbed the children, and again, everyone bowed in deference to Voden.

Once more, their gazes slid from Voden to his men, then finally rested on Tao, and their looks changed. Tension, wariness. And then suspicion. Not, Tao finally noted, because he was banged up, but because he wasn't one of them. These people kept so thoroughly to themselves that they didn't trust anyone who wasn't from their cave. The only exception, it seemed, was Voden, whom they considered their leader, perhaps even their god.

That meant getting out would be difficult. They wouldn't want anyone telling where they were, or giving away any of their secrets. And though Tao had expected some struggles involved in escaping, he somehow hadn't thought an entire village's worth of people would want to keep him locked up. They would work for Voden without him even needing to say anything to them. He would have to work carefully in order to get free.

But only one exit? And up such a steep incline? It would be nearly impossible.

Perhaps it had been a mistake, letting them bring him here.

When they passed the second chamber, it was to enter a small, cramped opening that forced everyone to duck their heads – Tao's head was shoved down by the man behind him – and walk forward in a sort of crouch. Voden, Tao noticed with an inward chuckle, picked up his cape in order to keep it from getting dirty.

When they made it to the third and, it seemed, final chamber, Tao shivered. This had to be where the prophecy was kept. Even though they were still underground, in a cave used as a sort of village, this chamber was empty save for two lone people lying almost prostrate at the end of the large room, their heads pointed to a statue carved out of the very rock the people relied on to support their home. It was shaped like a human, but had little else to mark it; like a hooded reaper, the figure shifted out as if pulling itself from the wall; a head, covered; a body, wrapped in some thick linen, arms as if to push the rest of the body out; all trapped perpetually in one still motion. Pieces were missing, as if lost over time, most likely from the walls being slick with water, or perhaps from an instability created by carving at them; one arm was chipped, and part of the hood missing, taking a part of the head beneath with it.

On the walls on either side of the figure, curls of rock pieced away by hand, were words. Tao was still too far away to read them, and he upped his pace, almost pulling ahead of Voden. One of his men, and Qord's hand still on his wrist, yanked Tao back before he could. He'd nearly forgotten about Qord in his haste and wonder. Now he felt the hand on him like a vice.

Voden led the way to the statue, and while the two people bowing to the statue didn't look up, they were far enough from the figure for Voden to walk in front of them and turn, his cloak billowing behind him, to face Tao – no, to face his entourage. His followers. Voden spread his hands. “This is where my coming was foretold,” he said, and Tao had to bite his tongue to keep from contradicting him. He was certain that to do so here would mean his death. “And you,” he said, looking at Tao, and those pale blue eyes glittered. Voden clasped his hands together as if in prayer and pointed them toward Tao. “You will translate it.”

Tao's gaze shifted to the writing. As far as he could see, it didn't need translating; it was right there. And if these people had labeled Voden as Awun in the prophecy, then they at least needed some basic understanding of what it said, right? But still he said nothing, only turning his attention back to Voden.

“Now,” the ex-king said, sweeping a hand out toward Tao's left, the right-hand side of the statue, and Qord dragged Tao suddenly over to it. Tao stumbled and nearly faceplanted. Only when Qord stopped pulling him did he manage to get his feet underneath him once again. He felt a tension in the ropes around his wrists, and then they loosened. He'd been freed. “Get started,” Voden said, and Tao, despite himself, looked up at the man's command.

It wasn't as if he didn't want to, after all.

\--------------

 _In the Dawn of Twilight:_  


_Cold will come, and Darkness,_  
And the Lord will watch with beady eyes.  
And after it comes, so will he,  
Disguised in brightness and desiring death.

 _His Herald will be the forgotten child,_  
And he will come through fire  
And carry it in his hands:  
The unknown vessel, and voyager of worlds.

\---------------------

It didn't take long to understand why Voden needed a translation. While the words were simply formed, they were written in a sort of prose. Tao wondered if it was always necessary to keep prophecies so vague and confusing. Then again, it had kept these people, and Voden, from understanding, and perhaps getting in the way of what must be done. So maybe yes, it was, in fact, necessary.

These people had obviously been grasping at straws to understand what the prophecy meant. To Tao, however, it was crystal clear. Cold will come – the cold that was reaching down even now from the North, and what had originally driven Voden into Zad's lands. And Darkness – well, that was Balcifer, almost certainly. 'The Lord' must have been Awun; from wherever he’d been, he’d watched and waited for his own opportunity to return. The 'disguised' in brightness reminded Tao uncomfortably of the man's clothing, that rich, ostentatious yellow.

As for the 'forgotten child,' to Tao, it had to be talking about the man Dar had fought, the one Dar himself had said had thrown fire at him. But what did it mean, that he was the 'voyager of worlds'? What worlds? Whatever world Awun had come from? Or been sent to by the Ancient One? If only Tao could ask; but the Ancient One was long dead, even if the strange wizard had been willing to talk to him.

And then the second piece, labeled _When the End Comes:_

_\-------------_

_All lands will be his and fall to dust,_   
_And his hand will stretch into the sky._   
_And he will be known as Hate, Death, Destruction,_   
_And he will be revered, and he will be reviled,_   
_And he will rejoice._

\-----------------------

The last words were carved deeply, each letter given extra carvings in order to make them stand out starkly against everything. Tao's heart thudded in his chest as he read it; if this was prophecy, and inevitable, then anything Dar tried would be too little too late. The thought of Dar's kingdom falling to such evil made Tao want to weep.

He hurried to the other side, nearly leaving Qord behind in his haste, needing to see the rest of the message.

But then Tao frowned, because the second half of the thing, to the left of the statue, had seen too much wear; here Tao had to squint to find the words. Water from some underground source trickled even now through the lines in the stone, some faded until the water flowed nearly without pause over the entire surface, lining the walls and some dug-out crevices underneath. While Tao thought perhaps the people who first came to worship these writings might have done so here because the water seemed most plentiful in this room – indeed, the crevices acted as a sort of moat, about four inches wide, and Tao thought the water might be led to where the beds sat, creating those walkways he'd seen before and leading to the puddles (yes, that made the most sense) – it had created an immediate issue with sustainability. Over time, the water that these people's ancestors might have considered sent from some sort of god had whittled away whatever message meant for Tao's eyes.

Only a few words remained of the rest of the prophecy. Tao muttered and squinted, brought one hand up to trace the letters, though he heard a few men move as if to stop him. Voden, of all people, held them off, but Tao was too absorbed to care.

 _But the forgotten child's mother has a redeemer,_ the first line read, and he managed to pull that meaning only by curling one finger around the symbol for 'mother', ensuring that he wasn't reading that line incorrectly. The rest, however, was too far gone to make out full sentences.

\------------------

_But the forgotten child's mother has a redeemer,_

_… and Life,_

_… of the past, and now, and what..._

_… in Light._

_… him, Shadows, and do not cross._

\-------------------

Tao grimaced. Even tracing as much as he could, he couldn't find enough to translate the rest. What redeemer? The man with Awun had a mother? That alone made him lose sight of what the rest of the prophecy could mean. Did the rest of this stanza speak of the mother or the redeemer? Did it say where to find him? Who he might be?

Tao cleared his throat. Dar, of course, it had to have something to do with Dar. And his mother, perhaps? Well, no, the mother of whomever the man with Awun was. But Dar had met several mothers, and had saved nearly as many as he'd met. Tao thought of the chameleon child. Then the number of women Dar had met. Even if the woman hadn't been pregnant then, or had a child then, all it would take would be for a woman Dar had saved to have gotten pregnant, and the prophecy would fit her. But the child was old, so perhaps someone Dar had met far back in his past, when he'd been a child himself?

Of course, Tao knew how Voden would see it. The man would think of his own mother, and who else had been that woman's so-called redeemer save Dar, or perhaps Bakhtiar? Either option would lead to the man wanting her killed.

But maybe his men hadn't been able to read that symbol, the one that said 'mother'? Perhaps Tao could lie about that, or pull Voden’s attention to something else. But with what?

“Speak,” Voden said, and the tone of voice made a line of ice run down Tao’s back.

“I haven't gotten it all yet,” he said, licking his lips and hoping his obvious nervousness would seem more like fear for Voden's power and not fear of being caught in a lie. Maybe he could skirt around the truth? He pointed to the first line. “It's too watered down,” he said. “The rock's been eroded, and the words weren't maintained properly.” Someone snarled something, and he realized it might not be a good idea to blame the wear on these people, even if they very easily could have kept the words present, if only they'd bothered to carve into the rock again every once in a while. They may have considered the first carving holy in come way, and thought that carving over it might be blasphemy. Ridiculous; so much of the message had been lost thanks to their superstitions. “This part is talking about someone called the 'redeemer,' but the rest is too muddled – it says the person has something to do with life, and light. It also speaks of the past, present, and future,” he said, retracing those particular letters, certain that the 'and what' was about what would, or should, or could, be – the future. “But I don't know who this person could be.”

Tao turned in time to see Voden's lips pulled back. “I suggest you find out,” he said, his voice dropping once more into ice. Tao saw the red agate flare up once more.

Tao turned back to the symbols on the wall, pretending to redouble his efforts. He needed to gather as much information as possible, anyway. Dar needed this prophecy. Anything he could squeeze out...

But it soon became apparent that the damage on the top of this side of the wall was nothing compared to the damage as the water traveled past its first hurdles and gathered together on the next. He couldn't even make out the name of this third portion of the prophecy:

\------------

_In the..._

_His..._

\----------

Tao touched the rock, run almost smooth by the water he could even now feel on the tips of his fingers, wetting the entire wall, and he thought he could see tiny holes in the wall, in the middle of the faded carvings, holes that probably hadn't been there when the man who'd carved these words had first done so. Tao sucked in a deep breath. He couldn't even trace these words to try to find their meaning; the small pits and divots where the water trickled out would mess up his efforts. Several lines were missing entirely, with no hope of salvation. Tao nearly shouted at the injustice of it.

Such a large spread of loss, and then the smoothed lines where the underground water had run its damaging course through the rest of the message and into the moat along the edges of the room. He measured the spaces as best he could, and found he was missing more than a stanza of the prophetic poem before he could find any more words he could make out. And what he did finally find made him shudder.

\--------------------

_...Savior, fear Destruction's call,_   
_... your heart, and how…_   
_...strike at it, and you will..._

\--------------------

 _Fear Destruction's call._ Tao's lips thinned, even as everything in him railed. There had to be more than that last message, a message that seemed to portend Dar's doom. That last line, that last little piece, seemed to be some small measure of hope. Some sort of answer. But what was it? What did it say?

He wanted to strangle the people who had let such an important message slip away simply through neglect. He wanted to tear his hair out. He wanted to dig into the walls, see if there was the slightest hint left of what it all might mean. He wanted to be able to study it down to its finest grains without feeling the weight of Voden's stare, of Qord's body just behind his, of the religiously superstitious preparing to strike if he so much as breathed wrong in their sacred space. And while he found their religious affiliation fascinating, he also wished it had never happened, because it had given Voden power again and made Dar's already difficult job even harder.

Tao read it over again. Actually, he had no way of knowing if the redeemer and the Savior were the same person. And if they weren't, which one was Dar? He covered his mouth with one hand, slid it down his jaw. He needed to know more to be certain. Dar could easily be the person who'd helped that man's mother; even as a child, Dar was a good person. It was an innate part of him; Tao had seen that when he'd watched Dar's past in Valhalla. But was he a Savior? The Savior? And if he was only one or the other, which would be better? Which remained alive at the end?

“Well?” Voden said, and again, Tao shivered. Voden's voice was as cold was the water on his fingers, and Tao found himself amazed that he'd gained so much control over himself. He remembered the man's childishness, the main flaw that gave some sort of weakness, if also another measure of madness, to his cruelty. If the childishness was gone, then only the madness and the sadism remained. And that would somehow be worse than the temper tantrums.

“Too much is lost,” he murmured, stroking the rock one more time despite knowing it would do him no good. Now that he was done reading and had given up finding more information, he could appreciate, on a different level, the length of time the words must have remained on the rock, how old the message must have been. Preserving it would have been for the best, but on another level, if he stood back and thought of it more as art than the prophecy needed for Dar to succeed, then he could understand the peoples' hesitancy to desecrate it. Just as the statue had been worn smooth and broken down by time, the words themselves were the last legacy of a man who had stood here long, long ago.

Then again, this _was_ the prophecy that Dar needed, and it was lost, gone. Tao bit his lip. “I can't tell enough to know for sure what the message should be.”

“Then tell me what you do know,” Voden said. His voice sounded closer, and Tao turned. The man strode up to him, backed him against the wall, forcing Qord to finally let go of him. As soon as he touched the cold stone, his wound came back into sharp focus; the rough stone and the cold water made him tense, pain flaring out from his side. When Tao's body leaned against their sacred writings, every last person in the room stood and moved forward, en masse. Or perhaps it was because Tao was right against their god, and if Tao so much as failed to show proper reverence, he could easily be killed for the insult.

“The first part,” Tao said. “Tells of the god of destruction's arrival,” Tao said, and then, knowing that separating the god from the vessel would be considered an insult, or perhaps just something Voden wouldn't want to hear (which could be considered the same thing as an insult), he said, “the arrival of the vessel,” and left out the 'and.' “The second part tells of what will happen when he comes, but parts of it are missing.” He pointed vaguely up above and behind him; the first stanza on this side of the statue. “His powers are in the first stanza, but I can't tell about the second. It... it seems to be talking about someone who might come up against this vessel, but I can't tell. I don't know what it says. The third part is all but gone.”

Voden slapped one hand against the stone. Tao opened his mouth to protest; no matter how much had been lost, it was still a timeless piece of history. But he managed to swallow it back before he got himself killed. “I know all that,” he said, and he grinned. “And I know you know more than you're telling me.”

Tao shook his head. “I'm not–”

“You understand what it means when it calls me 'the voyager of worlds.'”

He had an idea, yet he shook his head. Because if he was guessing it right, then it was more proof that it couldn't be Voden. The man's nails scraped against stone as he curled his hand into a fist. Tao's heart beat wildly. He saw, over Voden's shoulder, Qord watching him with a dark gaze. “I don't,” he said. “I'm not sure. I can't be – there's not enough left. If I could read the second part, I might be able to deduce–”

“No, you know.” Voden grinned. It was a grin that made Tao's breath freeze in his throat. “And the 'redeemer'?” Voden leaned down, until he was once more whispering into Tao's ear. “Who is it my mother relies on most?” Tao froze. He didn't even breathe. “Is it my brother?” Voden chuckled. Each breath puffed against the side of Tao's face. “Or would it be part of that which you hide out of your misplaced loyalty for that brainless wildman of yours?”

Tao tensed despite himself. Voden chuckled again and finally pulled away. “Take him to my chambers, Qord.”

Qord moved around Voden to grab Tao up. Stupidly, Tao flinched, ready to fight to get away. But even if he was foolish enough to think he could escape, there were more people in the room now than before. Several other men from the previous room had apparently come in to watch. Their eyes were wide, but there were grins on their faces. Because their lord was the lord of hate, death, and destruction, and they loved all that he was promised to bring.

Tao stumbled as Qord pulled him away, and with a flash of brown from his picture jasper, Voden moved a rock that seemed to be a part of the wall. Tao could tell even before they got close that it led to a thin interior. And it was pitch black dark. Undoubtedly Voden used his red agate to light the way through. Without Voden's abilities, however, Qord and Tao were left blind as Qord led him, most likely by feel, into the tiny walkway. Just as thin as the space leading to the temple-like room, it was at least high enough that they didn't need to bend over or duck down.

Then the room opened up again, though it was a much smaller space than others. It was also lit by baddeleyite, metal mesh cages locking bunches of them, hanging from every corner. One wall, the same wall as the temple, was wet from top to bottom, with water trickling slowly from whatever underground passage led to it. The rest of the room was little more than a bed and a table, on which several maps and a few gems sat.

Qord led Tao to the opposite side of the bed, beside the wet wall. There were no chains, no ropes, no anything, and Tao wondered – feared – how Qord and Voden intended to keep him in place. His imagination was a curse sometimes; he thought about them breaking his legs, stabbing him to the wall, taking his clothes and leaving him on the bed...

That last one also took him down a path he very sincerely hoped he never had to walk.

Thankfully, all Qord did was throw him inside, cross his arms, and stand guard in front of the only exit to the place.

Once Tao managed to catch himself – and he was very proud of the fact that he didn't fall on his butt or knock his head into the wall; his balance had gotten much better over the years than Qord may have been ready for – he took the chance to look around a bit more. He'd already read everything he could from the prophecy; if he had the chance, he would like to go to the Vella's and see if they had anything like it in their repertoire. From now on, all he had to worry about was escape. And he could handle that. Probably. Potentially.

Hopefully.

Tao took the chance to just sit down and rest; while his side ached and burned, the rest of him was simply exhausted, as if he'd been made to run for days. He wondered if perhaps the unicorn horn could only heal physical injuries, but somehow failed to take into account the mental and emotional exhaustion of the wound.

In any case, he had no idea when he would have the opportunity to escape, and he needed to save up as much strength as possible. He was certain Dar would be hot on their trail, eager to get Tao to safety. He just needed to get out of the cave, and Dar would help him with the rest. But in order to do that, he needed to rest. He didn't know if sleep was a possibility, not with Qord watching his every move, mere feet away. He still remembered the pain of the chains around him, the glee that curled Qord's lips whenever Tao struggled to breathe or fell limp to the pain. He remembered the whip. The laughter. He shivered, curled up as he was on the floor, and even though he didn't look, he knew Qord was smiling once more at his discomfort. Yet he was glad, still, because, though the man guarded against his escape, he also didn't come near. There were no weapons, no bindings to hold Tao in place.

Not yet.

Because it was inevitable. Tao knew it was. Even as he listened to the soft sound of water on stone, the drip and quiet ripple as the water reached what was, once again, a thin moat-like line dug into the floor; even as he stared at the long shadow of the bed on the floor, broken into pieces by the separate sources of light, he knew that the reprieve would be short. He hoped he would have a chance to escape soon, before he was tortured too badly. Before Dar arrived and found that Tao was taking too long to escape, and the man burst into the place trying to reach Tao's side as he had at the previous cave.

But how to get out? To do so, he would have to get past Voden's hidden room and the rock that turned the entryway into a wall, the temple, the sleeping quarters of the small town's worth of people, including the religious zealots who considered Voden their god, and the first room, which seemed to be both a place for communing and a false, nearly-empty space that kept any wayfarer from thinking a large grouping of people resided within these walls. Then he would have to travel up a thin, shallow staircase that led into an even thinner opening before even reaching the outside.

This was not a place made for escape. When Tao tried to conceive of a way to get out, his mind fell into pitfall after pitfall.

Firstly, he would have to get past Qord. That alone would be impossible; the man obviously had no intention of letting Tao go anywhere, probably not even to relieve himself. But even if he did, and the rock-door was left open, he would come face to face with Voden and his entourage. They would descend on him like a pack of starving wolves. And if he got past them? He might be able to pretend he was just doing something for Voden if he didn't have to hurry away, but the chances of him not having to were practically non-existent. So that would mean having to try to run past about forty people, at least ten of them adult men, and then get up the slippery staircase without tripping and knocking himself unconscious falling down. And then? Once he hit the open air and faced nothing but a blank expanse and frigid waters?

No, it wasn't possible. Not yet.

Yet no matter how much Tao tried, he wasn't able to make himself comfortable enough to do more than close his eyes and slow his heart rate. Every time Qord moved, rustling his clothes or clearing his throat, Tao would freeze, wide awake and aware once more. Soon Qord seemed to notice it, and Tao couldn't go more than a few minutes without the man doing something that would pull him back from his attempts at repose. More than once, he caught the man grinning, stretching those scars on his face into deeper recessions.

By the time Voden returned, the sound of rock moving signaling his return before his white form entered the room, Tao was almost glad. Physical torture would be better than the mental play Qord seemed to be enjoying. Instead of waiting, Tao would rather just face down whatever was coming.

Not to say he was looking forward to it. Just that, since he'd run through the variables, he had to say that the most likely chance for escape would be after another round of torture, when he seemed weak and vulnerable and defenseless, and perhaps when the two madmen's appetites were somewhat appeased and they moved on to something else.

Or – and here he hoped this final choice never came – he could undergo the torture for a sustained amount of time, and, if Voden's and Qord's interests were still focused on how much harm they could do to him, they would remain distracted by Tao's pain while Dar and Arina burst in to the cave to free him. So long as these two, the strongest among the lot, were kept from the main fighting, Dar would have a much better chance of getting through unscathed. So long as he wasn't caught in the thin, choking walkways practically made to trap oncoming enemies.

Voden looked Tao up and down as Tao struggled to his feet, his entire body heavy from exhaustion. Qord stepped back as Voden walked forward, but Tao saw a short grimace as he did. Once again he thought of playing the two against one another, but he didn't know if it would work in his best interest even if he succeeded.

By the time he wrote the idea off as a 'maybe later,' Voden had already gathered himself into Tao's space once more. “Listen,” the young man said, leaning into Tao's space, then away, then back again. “I understand loyalty. I understand that, perhaps, you thought of that wild man as your king. It's a mark of respect, how I treat you here. Look.” He waved his hand toward Qord. “I leave guards. I lock you in. I recognize your skills. Your knowledge.” Again, he leaned in close, this time gripping Tao's jaw tight in one hand. Tao saw the red agate glow slightly, turning his skin pink in its reflection. “So when I tell you that I respect you, know that I speak the truth.” He backed away. “Unfortunately, your loyalty is to an enemy of mine.” The man shrugged. “Which makes you, right now, an enemy of mine.”

Tao sucked in a deep breath as quietly as he could. He knew where this was going.

“I don't want you to be an enemy, Tao.” Qord was already starting to grin. “I want you to be an ally.”

Tao shook his head. “The chance of your plan working is minimal. It's more likely that I'll break completely, that I'll lose my knowledge, or even lose my ability to speak.” He backed up until his back lined up rigidly against the stone wall. It was wet, but his shirt was already soaked from the outside wall, and really, the water was not a concern at the moment.

Voden waved all Tao said away. “Right now, you are an impediment to me and an aid to my enemy. If, as you say, you break to the point where I cannot use you, then at least you would be of no more use to the Beastmaster, either.”

Tao's heart hammered. Every beat of it seemed to press against the unhealed wound in his side.

Voden waved Qord over. Qord loomed up and grabbed Tao's arms. He shoved Tao back, even though there was nowhere for Tao to go.

“Go ahead and get started,” Voden said, and walked to his bed. He gently placed the horn down, leaving it in Qord's possession – something Tao had thought he would never do.

Then Voden walked away, leaving Tao alone with a man who could take him to death and back infinitely.

Qord grinned. Tao's heart sank.

* * *

Dar knew, instinctively, that he was taking too long. He felt it even as they got up, moved forward, left the island and made their way across the land. Before the sun was halfway into the sky, he found himself begging the animals for help. Their trek would take them at least a day’s travel, even at the grueling, nonstop pace he was putting himself, Arina, and his men through. Tao didn't have that time. He might not have the time they'd already spent. He could be dead, bled out, freezing, drowned. If he was alive, who knew what Voden was doing to him?

The animals hardly needed to be asked. As soon as they heard it was Tao, Dar's human friend, who needed help, they rallied together in support of him. He nearly wept in relief.

 _Don't kill,_ he told them, but he worried that the animals might have to face death themselves if they didn't harm. _Don't get killed._ Even if they couldn't rescue Tao, just buying Dar time would be enough. He hoped.

He ran harder, even as Arina panted behind him. She didn't say a word about it, just hurried to match his pace.

* * *

Qord made use of the bed sheets to tie Tao's hands together behind his back. At first Tao thought the man would start in on the torture immediately. Instead the man toyed with him. It reminded Tao suddenly of Zad and his Terrons. He remembered the delight they held in the show, in the spectacle of fear they could produce. Like Zad, Qord liked to grab Tao’s face in his hand, whisper ideas into his ear, trace paths along Tao’s throat, his chest, as if marking where his dagger might strike.

He couldn’t help the way his breath hitched or how his body trembled. He couldn’t help the way his eyes, when Qord leaned in and promised to cut off pieces to drop at Dar’s feet, burned. He couldn’t help ducking his head down and battling back the tears; they would only delight Qord. He couldn’t help how, when Qord slid his knife into his belly button and yanked, he jumped, even though it ended up just being the flat side of the blade.

But he _could_ keep himself from speaking. He _could_ choose silence and determination as his weapons. He _could_ choose to refuse to rise to the bait like he might have when Qord had last known him. When Qord realized this, the man shoved Tao into the wall and backed away.

Tao stayed where he was on the floor of the cave as Qord paced in front of him. The man said nothing; Tao didn't expect him to. What would he have to say? They both knew what was coming was revenge for what Qord had gone through at Dar's hands. At Zad's. Even though Qord’s troubles had been caused by his own greed, his own lust and desire for power. But Tao couldn't say it. He needed to stay aware enough to find the chance to escape and make use of it.

Even though he hadn't managed to get nearly the amount of information he would prefer, he was positive he could make something of it, if only he was given time to think. Now was the worst time to do so; the pain Qord wanted to put him through was supposed to ultimately lead to him giving away what he knew.

Despite that, the knowledge swam in his head, melded and molded together until he wasn’t sure what he’d told Voden and what he hadn’t, what was safe to speak and what wasn’t. Anything to do with Dar, he knew, was not for Voden’s ears. But the mother? The redeemer? The chameleon child or Bakhtiar or perhaps some woman from way back when? How could he know which woman was the mother? Perhaps the mother was a sort of metaphor – but no, no, he couldn’t afford to think about it. Not with Qord turning back to him. Not when the man had that particular look on his face.

Qord yanked him up from his sitting position until he was on his knees. His shirt, already ripped into rags, tore again. The fabric was officially ruined; if he survived all of this, he would simply toss the thing and make a new one. It would take about the same amount of fabric and thread either way.

“Take your time,” Qord said, that dark grin from the cave returning. Tao sucked in a deep breath. He tried to prepare himself, to console himself with the knowledge that Qord wouldn’t get too creative. He didn’t have the mind for it, and the chains had been left behind. Perhaps later, when the routine got old – did the routine of hurting people get old for people like Qord? – but not until then.

All he needed to do was survive. Survive, and wait. Until nightfall, or until he was allowed to relieve himself – perhaps when _Qord_ needed to relieve himself. Anything.

Voden hadn’t returned. For all Tao knew, the man may be returning to find Dar, or to retrieve his men, if he cared enough to do so. Perhaps he’d gone somewhere else, now that he believed he had Tao secured. If not – if Voden remained in the cave – then Tao would just have to find a way around him. He could do it.

He could.

Qord sauntered over to the horn and lifted it. The man looked it over, playing with it in a way not dissimilar to Voden. Then he turned to Tao.

Tao bit his lip, but he didn’t back down. Voden wanted to break him, to mold him into an obedient servant. Qord, however, wanted to shatter Dar. And how better than to shatter Dar’s friend? Tao wouldn’t let it happen. He had faith that Dar would come, faith that he would escape. He just had to weather the pain until then.

He trembled, even as he lifted his chin and returned Qord’s stare. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t break, though. If it took too long.

He hoped it didn’t take too long.

Qord stepped forward and raised his fist. That was all it took, and already, Tao was flinching, squinting his eyes shut and turning away, trying to mitigate the worst of the attack. He almost hoped the fist would bounce him off the wall and he would fall unconscious. He couldn’t be broken by pain if he wasn’t awake for it.

He heard it just before the crack of bone against bone, snapping his neck around and, yes, bumping him back into the wall. Something like the trickle of water, turning into something like static in the back of his ears. But no, that wasn’t static.

It was a hiss.

He felt the heat of Qord’s presence back away and blinked his eyes open. Qord stumbled away from him with a high-pitched shriek. A snake slithered over his leg, wrapping around it and climbing forward. It opened its mouth at Qord, revealing two long, sinister fangs. Several more snakes came – out of the water, Tao noticed; they all swam through the tiny canals of water and slid out, converging on Tao until there were over a dozen, each turned on Qord and ready to strike. To strike like the one that had nearly killed the man. He almost crowed.

Dar was here.

* * *

Dar didn't stop, pause; he didn't even breathe when the animals sent him their news.

A cave, dark and lit with stones. A thin, one-way entrance and exit, oddly unmanned but difficult to maneuver through. While Dar didn't doubt in the slightest that Tao would try to escape if he could, it was immediately apparent that doing so might not be possible. A few vipers scraped their way inside, slowly moving their way down to the warmer recesses of the cave, and Dar thanked them again for going out in such weather, unnatural for them, even dangerous, simply in order to save Dar's friend. They’d been huddled together in a cave a good sun’s pace away and had nearly frozen on their way to the cave Voden resided within.

The snakes had slithered further inside, hurrying for the strange waterways on either side of the room when they saw a large gathering of people within. The water was a near freezing temperature, keeping the snakes from recovering within the relative warmth of the cave. They found another room beyond, then yet another. They swam back and forth for a moment, their bodies getting dangerously cold, their blood slowing in their veins, until they found another path past what looked to be pure rock and slithered through. The secret room finally led them to Tao.

Just in time to see Tao get punched.

The snakes wrapped around Tao, not only protecting him but desperately warming themselves. They opened their mouths, mouthing their discontent with their body’s state. The reaction from Qord was better than Dar could have dreamed. He backed up against the far wall, something in his hands held in a white-knuckled grip. His gaze locked on the vipers and didn’t waver.

After a moment, one of the vipers turned from Qord and looked at Tao. It took Dar several moments to really hear what they were reporting – some busted blood around the eye that would rise to the surface soon, all due to that punch, but nothing more. Despite the blood on Tao’s clothes, soaking the shirt into a brown color and making it tacky to the snakes’ scales, there was no sign of a wound.

How?

No. At the moment, that didn’t matter. The amount of blood he’d seen had made him think the worst, that Tao could have been near death, or even… Dar wouldn’t argue with miracles.

“He’s alive,” he said, wasting valuable air to pass along that knowledge to Arina. He saw her shoulders slump for a moment in relief, watched her pace falter. Then she matched with him again, and he dared waste another lungful to tell her, “he’s healed somehow.”

Her face scrunched. Clearly, the news made about as much sense to her as it did to him. “How often?” she asked.

At first, he didn’t understand. And then, all at once, he did. The knowledge hit him over and over again, churning with it the twin knowledge of not knowing the answer. _How often?_ Arina had asked, and it opened up a brand new kind of horror.

He asked Sharak to scout ahead as the trees turned to pine and spruce and grew sparse, age and strength and height taking over for the dense undergrowth of the southern forests. The animals they passed, those not engaged in helping but still setting up a network of support, became noticeably whiter in fur as they continued. Tiny tufts of snow from a previous storm sat cushioned against trunks and ice caps, still frozen in the cold.

How many times had Tao been hurt? On the voyage here, or even in the cave, had there been more and more times when Tao had lost blood? Had he been tortured over and over again in such a short span of time? Was Voden, who only thought himself the god of destruction, worse, or just the tip of the iceberg? Was all that Tao suffered just the beginning?

Dar remembered Awun's gaze as it fell to Tao, the hate in his eyes as he threatened Tao's life. Would Awun somehow be even worse?

Was the pain Tao had suffered nothing compared to what Awun had planned?

Whether it was or wasn’t, would there be anything left of Tao after this for it to even matter? Would Tao still be the smiling, clumsy man who followed at Dar's side and babbled about circles and letters and herbs? How much of his friend would be lost to Voden's cruelty?

How much pain was Tao in right now, as Dar helplessly chased after the ones who took him?

Even as he pushed faster than his men could follow, until only he and Arina took point across the landscape, leaving only a trail for his men to follow, he listened as the snakes warned of their need for body heat, and how much colder Tao seemed to be getting as he seemed to take on the responsibility of warming multiple freezing reptiles.

The snakes felt vibration in the air – Qord was speaking. Shouting. It would only be a matter of time before Voden arrived, and he, with his strange abilities, would be able to scare the snakes away.

Ruh had run ahead hours ago, his occasional sprints edging him past even Dar’s range. Thanks to Sharak, Dar knew the tiger was close to the cave. Sharak had reached the site and could now see Ruh approaching, still a few minutes off. The idea of Ruh facing Voden and the others, however, made Dar’s heart lodge in his throat. Ruh was still injured from the confrontation the day before. If he went in alone, he would easily be defeated. If he went in with Sharak, both would be defeated. Sharak posed no use in such a confined space.

It was daylight; several groups of animals had offered their assistance, but for many, it was still too early. The bats that had offered to fly were asked to wait and rest, while he begged the crows and ravens to fly to Sharak’s aid. Lynxes and wolves were next, and even though Sharak warned him Voden’s camp was past their usual forests, they answered him. All animals did, in droves, without question. Squirrels and hares warned him of areas of tough terrain and told him of detours. Foxes lured a few of Voden’s hunters away by stealing their catches.

Almost, Dar wondered at it, at their quick readiness to help when normally the spiders, at the very least, would show some sort of reticence at leaving their webs. But he couldn’t worry about it now. Not while Tao waited for him, his shirt still torn and bloody.

Arina, silent since she’d asked her last question, finally puffed out, “how bad?”

Dar didn't know how to answer. He shook his head. “Still safe, for now. But Voden’s coming.” They both struggled to go even faster, despite the numbed feeling in their legs. Ruh had run past endurance to reach the cave, and tigers, though more like sprinters than anything else, could still run much faster than humans. Dar and Arina still had a few hours ahead of them before they reached the cave, and by then, it would be dark. Far too late to rescue Tao from what was coming.

Desperate, he asked the wolves and lynxes and spiders to hurry without him to reach Ruh. To, when they met up outside the cave, somehow, someway release Tao from his imprisonment. He didn't know how they could do it and remain alive, especially against Voden. But if they didn't do something, then by the time Dar arrived, Tao could be dead. Or, as Tao would say, worse.

For now, he would have to hope that the threat of the snakes would be enough.

* * *

Qord hadn’t come nearer. His shout for Voden, however, couldn’t have gone unheard. If Voden hadn’t heard it himself, then certainly some of Voden’s followers had. Tao shivered at the cold dampness on his torn shirt and skin, but continued holding the snakes close. As much as they hissed at Qord, they also huddled into him. They were cold. The chances of them being able to properly attack were slim.

Tao looked around. The walls and ceiling were all unnaturally smooth; while the damp wall could have smoothed out over time, the rest should be as caves usually were – craggy from wind and the elements. These walls were likely formed from magic. He couldn’t see any other secret entrance, and certainly no lever of any sort. His only chance was through the rock, and he hadn’t the strength to move it on his own.

Just as he was about to look away, to study Qord and perhaps find some way to push past him or something, he looked back. Just out of the corner of his eye, he could see spots on the ceiling move. They… weren’t spots.

He very carefully looked around some more, trying to hide what he’d discovered. Qord’s brows lowered, clearly not falling for Tao’s poorly designed trick. Qord looked up – just as a spider fell and landed on Qord’s shoulder. He jumped. Qord swatted the spider off, however, with little more than a grimace, not even shouting in surprise or concern. Qord glared at Tao as if he was somehow at fault.

Outside the room, Tao heard muffled screams from beyond the movable rock. (Where obviously, Tao thought now, Voden had gotten the idea to do the same at the previous cave.) Even as the screams rose and fell, another snake slid into the room through the tiny water canals on either side of the rock. Qord skittered away from the snake toward the side wall. With one hand, he held out the horn as one might a dagger. The snake stayed away, but several spiders clustered above him and just. Fell. One after the other, they dropped onto his hair, his arms, one onto the horn itself. Here, where the first spider had failed, these succeeded; in Qord’s effort to ensure the snakes stayed away, he reacted with frantic slaps to get the spiders off of him. The newest snake slid around Qord for a few moments before slithering up Tao’s leg and nesting around his calf.

At first, Tao didn’t understand what the snake and the spider had been trying to do. Then the screams rose in pitch, and he realized. They were keeping Qord from acting. Stopping Qord from going outside the room while ensuring the ex-Terron also left Tao alone.

He bit his lip as the chill from the newest snake left him shivering yet again. He didn’t want to show any ingratitude; it was thanks to the snakes and the spiders that he was safe still and had nothing more than a black eye and a wound on his side to show for his travel with two of the craziest men on the planet. “Thank you,” he murmured softly.

If someone had told him when he’d been younger that he would be thanking snakes and spiders, natural enemies to the human race, he would have laughed. Now he was only grateful. The snakes along his arms and chest had begun to warm, until they felt almost like a lumpy, scaly blanket more than anything else. Better, they were a blanket that scared off monsters.

He and Qord eyed each other, both waiting for the other to move. Whatever chaos was going on outside, in this tiny piece of the cave, the world was at a standstill.

* * *

The spiders wreaked havoc on the underground populace, and Voden was limited in how he could respond; any attempt to burn the spiders terrified his constituents still more; they recognized Voden as the god of destruction, and at least knew, apparently, that such a god would not differentiate between them and anything else. All attempts to drown the spiders in the water he manipulated from the cave walls – there seemed to be a good amount down there, actually, somehow, though Dar was certain Tao would have been able to explain it to him… but no, best not to think about that at the moment – was met with the snakes curling around Voden’s legs until he dropped the water bubbles and tried to move the rocks to crush the snakes. Which, of course, led tot he spiders dropping onto the man’s face.

This repetitive stalemate could only last a few moments longer, and Dar was still hours away. The other animals, however, were ready to fight, and Dar asked them to join the snakes and spiders. Without hesitation, they did.

Just as Dar sent his friends into battle, the snakes and spiders got in touch with him again. Tao was safe with them, for now; though he was shivering, he was keeping the snakes warm enough to survive, and the spiders, in turn, were waiting on the walls and the ceiling once again in case Tao or the snakes needed their help. (The snakes were quick to note that they were hungry, but trying to play nice.) One also mentioned a wound on Tao’s side, a place where he flinched if they crawled over it, and showed him a poor snake’s-eye-view of Tao’s quickly purpling black eye. The air tasted of Qord’s fury. They didn’t know how long their safety was going to last.

Even though every muscle in Dar’s body ached, he tried to hurry more. He couldn’t; he was at the end of his ripe, and Arina, panting right next to him, was at the end of hers. More the air had gotten colder, downright chilly, and the forest no longer kept the wind from penetrating through. Every part of him felt hot, but now his every breath felt like inhaling fire.

A few animals called to him, asking if there was something they could do, and finally Dar realized they were acting as if Tao was a part of their packs. While Dar was accepted by the animals due to his ability to speak with them – and _for_ them, to the human communities – it seemed Tao, in association with Dar, had become a part of their groups, as well.

Most of the animals who called to him, he answered with thanks, but did not give them any orders. He didn’t know how they could be of use without placing their lives in far too much danger. Wolves and snakes could defend themselves. Several of the birds that remained in the snowy regions at this time of year wouldn’t be able to leave their trees without compromising their own safeties, and the small rodents, though eager to help, wouldn’t be able to scare off Voden’s ire the way the snakes and spiders could; they would easily be burned or drowned and swallowed by the rocks of the cave, and no one would be able to stop it. In the end, he asked them only to keep their eyes open and to send the word along.

Dar had no doubt that Voden would soon turn to hurting his own people in order to get at the animals, and when he did, there would be fire, and perhaps the light from the skies, and more than just his animal friends would be lost to Voden’s chaos.

It was nearly dusk, and the bats were starting to rouse themselves from their slumbers. Dar and the diurnal birds sent out messages for help that were quickly picked up by the first few early risers and passed down the line. The bats who had roused early woke the rest as Dar thanked them, his pounding heart full at what the animals were willing to do for him. He would owe them more than he could ever repay.

Thanks to the spiders and the snakes, no one guarded the thin entrance properly; the wolves pushed down the two warriors watching the entrance, forced to snap their jaws on the wrist on one who raised his dagger on the animal intruders. From there, they gathered the women and children, protecting the spiders from their hands and feet and keeping them to the far corner of the first room. They and Ruh relayed the women’s mumblings of curses and the end days and ‘the Life of the Redeemer.’ Dar committed what they reported to memory, hoping against hope he and Tao could talk about it, perhaps weeks from now, when Tao’s scars weren’t as fresh in his mind, if not in his body.

Ruh, behind the wolves only because the wolves worked best in their packs, moved on Voden, snarling and demanding vengeance for the humiliating defeat the day before. Voden shouted something as Dar watched through Ruh’s eyes; the old king screeched out the Beastmaster’s name. Fire glowed around his hand. One of the wolves snapped in his face, and the fire flew to the ceiling. Dar’s heart tripped as he thought of the roof of the cave collapsing on the animals, on Tao. On the innocent people still trapped inside. But it held firm, and Voden was forced to retreat deeper into his own cave.

By the time the sun was down completely, a few of the wolves had herded the women and children out of the cave, and the bats had reached the cave entrance. Ruh and the rest of the wolves retreated as the bats used their bodies to cover the sources of light, and without them, Voden was forced to use his fire as a light source instead of a weapon. Thanks to the bats, who offered their way of seeing, confusing and dizzying as it was, Dar was shown an image of the mad prince, who shouted and shook his fist at the animals in impotent rage.

The bats left then, retreating from the confines of the cave and leaving the wolves and Ruh greater space to maneuver; many of the spiders had also retreated, returning to the ceiling or hiding in the wolves’ fur. Qord, however, remained in the room with Tao, every once in a while testing the snakes to see if they were still watching him. The closest he got was when several snakes had worked to divest Tao of the bindings around his wrists, though he hadn’t yet succeeded.

Tao, the snakes reported, looked tired, and his side was turning red, even though the bleeding had stopped. Their concern was more than what reptiles usually felt for others; apparently the snakes had grown fond of their heat source, enough so that even the increased heat of Tao’s infection couldn’t deter them from their worry.

In any case, Tao was trembling a bit too much for the chill of the snakes’ bodies, and they could feel a sort of rattle from his chest. Tao was getting sick.

Dar wasn’t going to make it. Even when the snakes offered Qord an escape route, Qord didn’t give up his position in the room with Tao. Every time Tao attempted to go to the rock barring his exit, Qord would attempt a flailing attack. The snakes hissed him away, even going so far as to take turns leaving Tao for a few minutes to keep Qord back while Tao struggled to move the rock. Nothing worked. Without magic or muscle beyond Tao’s lone abilities, he would remain trapped within that room. All of the sacrifices the animals had made would be for nothing.

Over time, the animals had chosen to bring Voden out of the cave, and several of the wolves and Ruh all put their lives on the line once again to herd Voden where they wanted him to go. They managed to keep him on an acceptable leash by flanking him; even with his fellow soldiers, the wolves managed to keep themselves safe, first by nipping at his heels, then by using his fellow humans as shields. It wasn’t what Dar would have preferred, but he did not order them otherwise; they were putting themselves at risk for him and Tao. He would not tell them how to do so.

They got him through the first room, and some of the wolves switched with their packmates, allowing a few to rest guarding the women and children while the others continued shooing Voden from his hideaway. The bats returned, obscuring the warriors’ vision. One bat took a glancing blow to its wing, and it had to fly brokenly away, out of the cave, as the rest continued the fight.

Ruh was the one to leap up on Voden and finally shove him through the last tiny corridor and out into the dark, empty night. The tiger roared in the madman’s face. Voden threw up his hands, for once less interested in making magic than in escaping the tiger’s wrath. The bats descended on Voden’s hands, their claws tearing at his fingers, scrabbling at the edges of his rings. Voden shouted. His men swarmed out from the cave, reaching out for the bats or swinging with their daggers. Dar quickly asked them to retreat, afraid another would be hurt.

From then on, it was a battle of attrition, neither the animals nor the warriors ceding any ground. The only strong point was how the wolves kept themselves in a circle around the warriors, and how Ruh placed himself in danger multiple times to get past the warriors’ blades and scare Voden every time any of the gems on his fingers glowed. Thankfully, one of the bats had managed to loosen a stone from its holding; Voden lost precious time fumbling it back into place.

Tao, however, remained trapped.

For now, Qord seemed content to bar Tao’s exit without doing anything that might put him in range of the snakes. Every time the man seemed to be losing patience, the snakes need only raise their heads and hiss for him to back away once again. So long as Tao stayed away from the rock, the stalemate continued.

For the first time since he'd lost Kyra, Dar was grateful for Zad's murderous sense of justice.

There was still more forest to breach before they reached the open area where the cave resided, and Dar had already lost sensation in his legs. His chest heaved with every breath; the back of his throat ached hot and cold whenever he inhaled. But every time he felt like he might flag, he thought of what the snakes could sense; Tao, sick, recovering from injury, from _torture_ , alone in a cave with the man who had hurt him. And as night – Tao's second night with Voden and his men – pulled time deeper into her net, Ruh and the wolves nipped at Voden's heels.

The other humans finally managed to push the wolves and Ruh away; the instant the slightest distance was made, Voden called forth flame. It burst bright into the night sky, scaring the bats further away. The wolves yipped at the sight; only Ruh remained, unwilling to bend, snarling at Voden to return was was theirs – what was Dar’s the tiget was saying, its words crystal clear in Dar’s mind. _Return what is Dar’s, or else_ _I will take from you what I left to Baha_ _!_

Thankfully, at Voden’s fire, his people scattered, leaving the wolves to snap at them and send them away from Voden’s side. Ruh took advantage; when Voden threw his fire, the tiger slumped into the ice, clenched its claws into the slippery surface, and leaped. Voden screamed and ran backward. He and his men went on the defensive as their shoes skidded on the ice. Voden lost his balance and bounced on his butt. His men picked him back up, shouting of demons, of nature itself defending against Voden’s existence. The animals reported the screams of this so-called ‘redeemer’ again, and even more of some unnamed ‘savior.’

By the time the forest finally thinned out and fell away, Dar had been running for nearly a full day straight, and Arina had begun to fall behind. When Dar hesitated, not knowing if he should leave her, she waved him on and said, “go. Go on ahead. I'll be right behind you,” and Dar found his rubbery legs pushing him forward without any thought from his brain.

He could see the cave for himself now, no longer needing Sharak's eyes. If it weren't for Voden and his men making for the forest, however, he might have been willing to think the large outcropping to be nothing more than a group of rocks; if it weren't for Sharak watching the procession go inside with Tao, he might have questioned what he was doing in such a remote place.

Of course, once he knew to search, that which in the darkness could be mistaken for a clump of trees was almost certainly a boat – the large boat they would have arrived in.

“Ruh!” Dar shouted, his voice nearly gone in his need to breathe. He shouted again, using his ability. _Ruh! Go get Tao! I'll hold Voden off._

Dar would never be able to get past the huge mass of people, and as a human, every man would consider him the most approachable enemy. Their only chance was Ruh. Even though a rock stood in Ruh’s way. If nothing else, Ruh would be able to reassure Tao that he had not been abandoned. Dar was on his way.

Ruh reared up onto his hind legs, whapped at Voden, then turned even before he landed and ran back into the cave.

Voden, as soon as Ruh left, turned his gaze on Dar as he raced forward. Voden’s lips pulled back in a snarl. One hand rose, but before more than a bright light of yellow could spark from one of the gems, several of the bats converged on Voden, ignoring Dar’s order for retreat, and the madman was forced to drop his concentration to keep the bats from attacking his eyes. “Beastmaster!” he snapped, his voice a high-pitched shriek. “You once swore your animals weren't slaves to control.”

“They aren't,” he panted, though he doubted the man could have heard through all the chaos, even if he had the ability to use his vocal chords at the moment. He couldn't hesitate, even though his legs felt as if they were disintegrating piece by piece. He hurried forward, not slowing from his endless sprint even then, at the end of the line. The wolves disengaged and gathered around him, moving into a pack formation, letting him take the lead, for the moment, from their alpha.

When Dar engaged Voden, swinging his staff from his back, both relieved and upset that it didn't change into his father's sword, the wolves tore into those surrounding him; the game of burning up time had ended. Only at the last minute did the wolves keep their jaws from snapping around necks or thighs. They focused on arms and wrists and bellies, with the intention of taking them down. Dar watched the alpha howl, heard it call the men’s blades horns and the hands heads, and watched the pack react accordingly. Dar finally let it go; the man had the unicorn horn. He could use that to heal his men.

Voden backed away from Dar the moment he first swung; with the first strike, Voden pulled rocks from the ground and flung them at Dar. Dar, too tired to dodge, simply absorbed the blows and stepped after him. Another retreat. So that much, at least, hadn't changed; the man enjoyed hurting, but not being hurt. Dar's lips thinned. He thought of Tao, the blood he'd lost. He wanted to _hurt_ this man. It surprised him. Concerned him.

Ruh shouted that he'd found Tao. Tao was speaking, and Ruh needed Dar to translate. Dar called a wolf over to help him, and one raced behind Voden, catching his attention long enough for Dar to listen. _The top of the rock. He intends to climb it, but he needs you to destroy it._

Ruh grunted. Dar caught Voden in the gut with his club and watched the man sprawl out for a moment. Voden crashed lightning down from the sky – a short spark, but enough in the darkness to momentarily blind him. He covered his eyes. The sudden stop nearly made him collapse. His legs, deprived of oxygen for so long, screamed at its return. He gritted his teeth and gripped his staff with white knuckles. His steps turned stumbling, but he continued after Voden, anyway.

Ruh roared in triumph. His claws scrabbled against the rock, scratching at the other side. Tao, from what Ruh could see, had gripped the top of the rock. Ruh clawed at the air when Qord made to move forward; the snakes seemed to rise as one, a multi-headed beast, as he neared. Qord cursed, stabbed the horn into the bed, and watched Tao go. Dar listened to the snakes as they slid off of Tao, afraid of being crushed as he made his way out. They instead stood vigil, ensuring Qord stayed back. He did.

Tao was free.

The warriors slowly gave way to the wolves, though not without getting a glancing swipe off the alpha’s mate; the alpha gave no mercy to that human; that one would not be using his arm ever again. The rest, watching as their supposed god gave in, ceded ground completely. The wolves chased them back, nipping and snarling, separating the group into individuals.

Dar saw the spiders retreat from the wolves’ backs, scuttling madly now that there was a safe moment to try to run. Arina arrived then, dodging the black mass with a stumble that nearly took her feet from beneath her. She continued running through the stumble, managing to keep her balance. With a war cry, she took up position beside the wolves and smacked a man in the face with the pommel of one of her blades. The man fell like a sack of wheat.

The sign of yet another human made the warriors lose the last of their fighting spirit. Even as they dropped their weapons to their sides and put their hands up, Arina went after one, then another, her war cry turning into shrieks as she attacked. A few warriors attempted to face her, only to find their weapons gone – taken from them by the wolves. Arina happily knocked several unconscious before they could sound a retreat.

Movement centered around the cave’s entrance. Ruh and the last of the wolves returned from the cave. With them, nearly stumbling over Ruh’s large form, was Tao.

In that one moment, all Dar was Tao. He looked… tired, and his eye looked nearly swollen shut. But when Tao caught sight of Dar, he gave him a wide smile, and for the first time in over a day, Dar could breathe again.

Voden cursed him, vowed revenge. Dar barely spared him a glance. Tao was safe. Voden didn’t matter anymore, save to ensure he knew to never touch Tao again. With his legs like jelly, there was little he could do. But Voden needn’t know that. “If you come near us again,” Dar said, cutting off whatever Voden was saying, “I will not ask my friends to be so lenient.”

Tao ran up to Dar’s side. What Dar had thought was just the snakes, who looked to be wrapped around his arms and chest like some scaled shirt, turned out to be strips of fabric hanging loose from Tao’s chest, dyed red-brown by Tao’s blood. Dar snarled. He twisted his staff until the blade pointed at Voden’s chest. The man gasped.

Tao grabbed Dar’s arm. “Don’t!” Dar stared at him. “I’m all right,” Tao said. Dar looked at those lips, that face. The eye, the only one Tao could see out of, and the one that was blackened by these men’s touch. Dar’s hands gripped the staff so hard he couldn’t feel his fingers. “I’m all right,” Tao said again, and this time, Dar lowered his blade.

“For your sake,” he said, turning a single, flinty glare in Voden’s direction, “these had better be the last wounds he sees from you.”

Voden waved his hands. “Rest assured, Beastmaster. I will return this favor.” He was already backing away, using one of his men as a shield as he spoke.

Dar made to follow after him, only for his legs to buckle. Tao, his hand still on Dar’s arm, knelt down with him, only to stand straight back up when Dar forced himself back to his feet. “I can only ask the animals to choose to help,” he said. His words made Voden chance a final look over his shoulder as he ran. “I can’t order them to. I also can't order them to not harm those they consider dangerous. So while I may not kill you, Voden, rest assured, every animal here wants you dead.”

And quite frankly, so did Dar. Even if it made him less of a man than he'd been two mornings ago.

His feet stung like nettles were being pricked into his skin. He swayed on his feet, ruining the strength of his words. Thankfully, Voden had already turned away, calling his men with him. The men hesitated, their gazes on the cave and, likely, the people Voden was ordering them to leave behind. But leave them behind they did.

Dar struggled to get his breath; now that he had let himself stop, his entire body seemed ready to revolt. His stomach churned. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to finish what he started. He asked the wolves to take the snakes home, and to ensure the spiders reached their webs before freezing to death. The snakes weaved themselves free of Tao, sending a final thank you to their heat source before heading for the wolves, who looked highly uncomfortable with their charges but who did not argue.

Dar asked the alpha if his mate needed attention, but was told the wound had been but a glance and would heal after a good day’s rest. Dar thanked them all, again and again, for their help. _For you and yours,_ the alpha said, _we will come._ Dar nodded. It was more than he’d ever thought to ask, but he remained grateful. Tao was all right, blabbering on about what it had been like when the snakes and spiders showed up. Dar let the sound of Tao’s voice wash over him. It had never sounded more wonderful.

The night was freezing; it wasn’t long before he was shivering. Ruh snarled, and Dar looked up to see the women and children exiting the cave. Qord hid among them. “They ran,” Dar said, and nodded in the direction Voden had gone. “Go. But this place will not be a haven for you anymore. If you’re wise, you’ll leave these lands. Until you divest yourselves of your desire for war and destruction, you are not welcome in my kingdom.” Dar pinned his gaze on Qord. “For you – if you return, you will find yourself hunted.”

Qord sneered. “Much like the beasts yourself, as usual, _Beastmaster.”_ Ruh roared. For all of Qord’s bluster, the man retreated faster than those he hid behind.

None of the others spoke. Dar saw a variety of looks on their faces. He was too tired to categorize them all; what mattered was that they turned and left and did not try to fight. After they were gone, Arina checked the cave, then nearly crawled back up to give the okay. Ruh followed them inside, escaping the wind with them; Sharak was only a moment behind. With him was the injured bat, still struggling to fly. Tao made a moue of concern and reached for it. The bat flapped its bad wing only twice before Tao made a clucking noise and held up his hands. _He wants to help_ , Dar said, and the bat carefully sat on the floor. Dar did the same, unwilling to move a foot further. _Sharak. I know I ask a lot, but could you watch for the soldiers?_

 _Of course._ Sharak took off, then returned. He did that twice more before coming back and reporting their approach. Dar just nodded, listening as Tao spoke aloud to the bat, telling it what he was doing as if it understood. “I’m going to fix the bone and put it in a splint. That means you won’t be able to use it. No using it! And don’t get mad at me when I put it in place, either; it’s going to hurt, but it’s a lot better than your wing being permanently mangled.” Tiredly, Dar acted as translator. The bat squawked several protests when said ‘fixing the bone’ occurred, but it did not try to attack Tao. Instead it tried to slink away, apparently done with Tao’s ‘help.’ Tao had to carefully scoot after it. “Hey! You need the splint! Come here already!”

Dar smiled. This was how it should be.

Ruh came to rest beside him. With a huff, the tiger lay his head in Dar’s lap. _I will keep you and your Tao safe,_ Ruh told him. A promise. Dar rested one hand in the tiger’s downy fur.

I know.

Tao had said once that the stain of having killed a man was one that could never be washed away. That may have been true; Dar had chosen not to kill, this time, and he was all right with the decision. But if Qord went after Tao again, he didn’t know that he would be able to find it in him to spare him again. He most certainly would not stay the bite of any animal who might choose to eliminate the threat. He would not, for instance, stop Ruh from keeping his promise.

For now, it was enough that Tao was safe, and busy distracting himself from what he’d endured by berating the bat for trying to nibble at his thumb while he worked on wrapping its wing with the splint. When Tao finally concluded his work done, Dar reached out for his friend. Tao sat next to Dar and let Dar wrap his arm around Tao’s shoulders. Arina lay on his side slightly further in. “I’m sleeping,” she announced, and closed her eyes. Giving them privacy, should they need it. Dar smiled.

“I’m tired, too,” Tao said. “But when I wake up, I want to show you something.”

Dar rolled his eyes. “Of course you do.”

Tao just grinned at Dar’s reaction. “You’re gonna like it. It’s pretty incredible.”

Tao did indeed rest, his head falling against Dar’s shoulder as he slept. Ruh snorted, ordering Dar to rest, as well. But he couldn’t. So he and Ruh waited, until finally Dar’s fighters arrived. Sharak guided them to the cave, and Dar quietly gave them the information on what had happened and asked that they rotate shifts to watch over the area. Only then did Dar rouse Tao and Arina and lead them slightly further inside, where they could rest without the winds from outside howling at their ears.

Tao mumbled, complaining of nothing but the loss of the cold as he settled down once more. Dar frowned. Remembering what the snakes had told him, he touched Tao’s forehead.

He was burning up.

“Tao.” He shook his friend. Tao scowled and opened bleary eyes. “Where are your herbs?”

Tao frowned. “With you?” Dar shook his head. “Oh.” Dar frowned. That meant that, wherever they were, they were not _here_. With Tao. “It’s just a cold, Dar. I’ll be all right.”

“What reduces fever? What allays colds?”

“Not much, up here.” He shrugged. “I’ll be fine. It’s just _hot_.”

It was not hot.

Dar let Tao rest, but forced himself back up to his men. “Have any of you seen a leather pouch with herbs in it?”

Several men looked at each other, and Dar was about to give up hope, when one of his men rushed forward. “Here! Here, sir!” The man held out, not simply Tao’s herb pouch, but his other sacks and his water skin, as well. Dar beamed the man a grin.

“Thank you, Esmond.”

He went back down. Arina still slept, but as Dar started a fire in the first room, she woke, rubbing her eyes at the flickering light and crackling firewood, retrieved by another of his soldiers. “Dar? You know there’s already light in here? From those weird lamp things.” She pointed to a couple of them.

“Tao is sick,” he said. It was enough to get her sitting up and blinking her eyes wide open. She reached over and touched his cheek.

“He’s burning up.”

“Here.” He held out Tao’s pack. “Grab the spearmint. I remember Tao once saying it helped with fever.”

“Sure. Hey, at least we have water in this place.” She nodded to the bubbling streams on either side of the cave.

Dar nodded absently. He tried to remember all the lessons Tao had given him. He found the utensils Tao used and started squashing the spearmint. It crinkled, nearly frozen in the cold, and Dar despaired that it had been ruined. But after a while in front of the fire, it started to melt, and he started to see signs of the paste Tao preferred. He would have to get Tao to digest this. Maybe put it in water? Would that dilute it too much?

Better than nothing, he thought, and hoped for the best. He moved to Tao's side. His shirt was no more than rags, both it and his pants drenched in his blood. His fingers clenched around the bowl, only to loosen a moment later. His shoulders slumped. As far as he could see, nothing but the sickness remained; Tao's physical injuries, save the black eye and the long, angry red line on his side, had all been healed by the horn. But instead of granting relief, the knowledge only made him feel worse. Yes, the physical pains were gone. But the mental? The torture Voden and Qord must have inflicted on him, knowing they could bring him back from death over and over again…

He remembered the chains in the previous cave, each thorn red with blood. He remembered the snake showing him Qord’s fist as he slammed it into Tao’s face. He’d only seen Tao take a single hit, and it was enough to make him want to throw something. The tiny, hitching gasps as Tao fought the resulting fever made him feel sick.

All he could do was wipe away Tao's sweat with a small cloth. Arina returned with Tao’s water skin, now full of water, and Dar mixed it with the spearmint before waking Tao up. Tao grumbled, but accepted the bowl when Dar gave it to him. The feel of it made Tao crack open an eye. He smiled. “Wow. So you were listening to me,” he said, and his words were a croak. He drank before Dar could answer, then winced. “Might want to make sure I don’t drink the leftover leaf bits, though.”

“Sorry,” Dar said, but Tao just grinned up at him.

“You did a good job. I really will be all right, Dar.” He frowned. “But grab some willow bark and rubber sap. Work them together and put them on the wound. If it’s closed, open it again. That’ll help with any infection.”

He did as told, and while he couldn’t see any improvement, Tao sighed at the feeling. He returned to sleep. “Go ahead and rest,” he told Arina then. She scowled. “Later,” he said before she could demand he do the same. Her gaze slipped to Tao before she rolled her eyes and huffed. He smiled slightly as she curled up on her side facing Tao, clearly still worried about him.

He watched as Tao’s hunched shoulders slowly fell, as the redness around his infection started to turn pink. His eyes drooped. Just as his head was about to slip to his chest, Arina launched herself up, one hand on her dagger. Dar could only stare slowly at her as she took in her surroundings. They were safe; neither Dar nor Ruh had heard anything. As Arina got herself more under control, she looked over to Tao. Her shoulders fell. She let out a long breath. “Rest, Dar,” she said, and scooted over to take his place. He had no choice but to let her.

Even though he knew whatever nightmares she'd woken from would haunt him, as well, still he let Arina take the medicine from him. He forced himself to rest his head. Even exhausted, sleep came slowly, as if in trepidation. He fell into it with muscles tense and ready for battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Magic swords don't rust. Fact.
> 
> I happen to be well aware that people can't usually travel through different biomes so quickly. I also know this is Beastmaster, where Dar has sometimes traveled from forest to marshland to forest again in about a day or two – walking. So screw it.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I looked it up, and Sharak looked the most like a golden eagle. I know he was played by red-tailed hawks, but it seems best to keep it as similar as possible, as the show called him an eagle. ^_^
> 
> “Shun” means “speed; fine horse,” and “Ran” means “Rim, Shield plus Wolf.” I added 'dar' to each because it seems to be a necessity for each male. 'Eldar,' 'Dartanus,' 'Sendar,' and then Dar himself. I named Dar's mother “Iolani,” too, which means “Bird.” I know most fanfic writers use their animal names, but that just seems a bit rude when Lycia and Sendar had their own names.
> 
> Side Note: When Dar arrives at the Vella, it's only been a day. But since the castle simply appeared in the show, I can't pinpoint where it is. My guess? If you need to get there, the path will appear. Because why not? Dar perhaps hadn't mastered traveling through the mist, or else he'd have been there even sooner. Maybe.


End file.
